AGL urges Tanzanian lubes market clean up

Tanzanian lubricant market has a huge upside on the back of increased vehicles and maritime gateway for transit.

The stability of the political climate is another plus for captivating an inrush of investors in the lube and grease business.

President Samia’s recent push on captivating foreign investors to come to invest in Tanzania would mean nothing, if we are yet to detach ourselves from the cycle of counterfeits and subpar lubes.

In the wake of such a vexed question, Atlantic Grease & Lubricant Company (AGL) remains a “safe hands” for customers who deserve quality lubricant products.

AGL is renowned for a long-standing pledge of never compromising on safety of its final consumers and that avails its mission impeccably to the market.

The company has earned such a reputation by supplying a range of different lube products that will protect your equipment and bring your engines to new heights of productivity. Their lubricants are built in the real worlds of plant and industry.

The AGL’s Managing Director, Mr Nassif Bachaalani says they have engineers who work closely with world’s leading equipment manufacturers and more than twenty years of research and development enabling Atlantic to produce satisfactory high quality OEM’s lubricants requirements.

“Our products are developed and manufactured to meet and exceeds the OEM’s requirement that allows us to remain certified by MAN, VOLVO, MB, PORCHE, RENAULT, JASO and many others and on top of all API who is the mother of performance level approval,” says Mr Nassif.

In addition, “Our agents are available in more than seventy countries among them Africans, Far East, Middle East, North, South Americans and Europe with direct industry and plant experience.

They are also following up on their market and report to their headquarters the comments and suggestions of end users helping the production to remain constantly perfect and always improved.”

“We are committed to ethical principles of business and have a comprehensive corporate social responsibility code that we follow.

We are also focused on preserving and protecting the environment, as well as reducing risks to health and safety. Plus, we produce industry-leading products that are backed up by an unmatched team of industry professionals,” elaborates Mr Nassif.

The firm is also offering high quality and high performance industrial lubricants that are developed and produced using state-of-the-art technologies and are subject to field and Atlantic fully equipped and certified laboratory tests.

The company’s products are fully compatible with all kinds of industrial and heavy construction equipment.

Overview of the sector

According to Mr Nassif, the critical challenges for the Tanzanian lubricant market are the glut of substandard lubes and the counterfeiting of popular brands, however, the sector is replete with potentials for growth.

He says the competition is not even close to fair. Yet three regulators are supposed to ensure the cleanliness of the lubricants and greases entering the Tanzanian markets, EWURA, TBS and GCLA you still can find the market is full of substandard and counterfeit products.

“I wonder how the so-called businessmen are able to enter all this enormous quantity without being tracked by three authorities if we do not want to involve others.

“I have been asking the same question since I started this business in Tanzania “Are recycled oil products allowed in Tanzania?” So far, all I got as an answer was head nodding (and never was it clear to understand if that is yes or no) unfortunately, no clear response.”

I was told when I started this business of lubricants in Tanzania that customers do not care about quality, they only care about price,” notes the MD.

He believes that Tanzanians deserve what they are looking for and his firm is keen on serving the consumer at the best of their capabilities, with a help of regulators, would replace substandard commodities with the pure high quality lubricants.

“The environment belongs to you and for your children after you, let’s together help maintain a clean place for our children to live.

“Most Tanzanians have been taught that 5000 km is the best to use oil, and then what? Drain the oil under a baobab tree? First the good oil is not less than 12,000 km and modern cars that are using low viscosity high index synthetic oil drain intervals must not be less than 20-25 thousand km.

Then what? The regulators must establish a used oil collection center at every district or region where the used oil must be stored and then sold to specialized recyclers who will be able to re-export the same without a drop being spilled to an underground water reserve.

A lot needs to be done for this business. All we need is a serious government decision for reform and not to set rules and keep it in drawers or disregard implementation for favoring some …

Continuing in this cycle makes it harder for consumers to find better products in the mixed bag of counterfeits, contrabands, recycled and quality products but traded reasonably or cheaply,” says Mr Nassif.

He adds that the laws—compliant lube companies like AGL that import legally and sell quality lubricant and greases products at reasonable price in the domestic market, which are the minority, are discouraged to see that they still share the same play ground with those firms operate illicit business.

The AGL’s MD is wary of the local lubes market considering the fact that it is full of players who are not well versed in lubricants and greases operations and sees this posing threat to the welfare of the final consumers.

He goes all out to strongly implore the regulators to perform the market assessment before setting aside parameters.

“We are among the few companies that put the safety of customers at the heart of our business by establishing quality brands that will suit the needs of customers,” says Mr Nassif who wishes and urges other companies to follow suit.

AGL’S strategy

In a different mood, Mr Nassif, this time has changed his mind from never believing publicity of its products to improve product awareness in the market to gain the attraction of various customers.

“I have discovered that remaining silent is helping counterfeit products to continuously spread, now I want people to visualize and memorize how to choose their lubricants through advertisements, mainly motor sport.

We started sponsoring and supporting this sport last year and this year we are continuing with further steps by supporting more drivers, clubs and teams.

This year so far we have sponsored Atlantic Mt. Uluguru Morogoro and Atlantic Mkwawa Iringa Rallies on July 22nd - 24th. We are sponsoring the Arc “Tanzania Atlantic Rally” and more to come,” says Mr Nassif.

The lube firm is further looking forward to seeing more counterparts are involved in these sports and attached directly to its business, striking an example of how motor sports in Kenya is used to form a social fabric.

He claims that by advertising through motor sports they expect to hit three birds by one stone, one helping the sports to grow, two putting Tanzania’s name in motor sport light and three, building its brand awareness.

“Welcome all audiences and motor sports lovers to share the taste of our Tanzanian event that is happening once a year to support our fellow Tanzanian drivers and spend a thrilling weekend on the 22~24 July 2022 in Arusha,” says Mr Nassif.