The automotive industry provides lubricant company FUCHS LUBRICANTS South Africa with growth opportunities in Africa, as a lot of growth on the continent is focused on the automotive sector, says FUCHS South Africa sales director Andrew Cowling.

FUCHS LUBRICANTS have a range of more than 10 000 products and related service lines, covering the main categories of lubricants, including automotive lubricants, as well as industrial lubricants, lubricating greases, metal processing lubricants, special application lubricants and related services.

“Automotive businesses don’t just want a lubricant supplier – they want a partner and are looking for cradle-to-grave solutions. We don’t just deliver products; we offer solutions including technical backup and on-site service support in certain cases. This is an evolution that we’ve had in our business”.

He adds that as a group of companies, FUCHS LUBRICANTS places a high priority on service. This often involves adding value to the operations of customers through products, as well as helping customers to use these products efficiently through on-site support.

Further, the company has worked on providing lubricant-related offerings that involve technologies such as sensor technology used on equipment that requires lubrication and dispensing equipment. 

The company also has longstanding relationships with various original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the automotive sector, and has good penetration into Southern Africa, particularly Zimbabwe, Zambia and Mozambique.

Cowling asserts that these relationships provide the company with multiple routes into automotive markets and provides FUCHS LUBRICANTS with credibility and an increased reputation for the brand and its services.

Similarly, in South Africa, these relationships with OEMs help boost the company’s reputation in automotive export markets.

“In the short term, we’re looking for investment in infrastructure to continue to support the growth that we aspire to achieve, and to continue with OEM relationships and brand-awareness building. We’re also increasingly investing into our brand awareness in the automotive market.”

In the long term, the company aspires to be “real players” in the major lubricant markets locally while continuing to grow its footprint in Africa, adds Cowling.

“While we have established distributors in certain countries, there are smaller companies we’re looking to develop into major players, and we are looking to continue developing our major export markets”.

Pandemic Impact

Cowling emphasises the importance and benefits of FUCHS LUBRICANTS’ having security of supply amid the supply chain challenges caused by Covid-19.

This remains a significant selling point for the company, as competitors might not be able to mitigate supply constraints.

He adds that, as the business has developed and other businesses were acquired to help build the FUCHS group since it was first established in 1931, it became apparent that non-independent, multinational companies that did not focus on lubricants left a gap in the automotive market – which FUCHS is exploiting – particularly in the local market.

While the company has diversified its products and technological services, he points out that this diversification was always related to lubricants.

Cowling highlights that the local automotive lubricants industry is crucial for FUCHS LUBRICANTS, particularly because of a slowdown in local industrial development in the past 20 years, and the impact of Covid-19.

“We have the products that can be used in every automotive segment, including heavy duty vehicles, on and off highway vehicles, passenger cars and retail.

The automotive sector is becoming increasingly important and is now the largest part of our business, whether it is through our distribution network or OEMs, directed to workshops and spare shops, or directed straight to end-users,” he concludes.