INDUSTRY NEWS


DRIVE CLEAN TO DRIVE CHANGE INITIATIVE AIMS TO HELP CLEAR THE AIR


US corporation Hyperion has today launched an initiative to encourage its employees to purchase fuel- efficient cars for personal use. Under the Drive Clean to Drive Change initiative, Hyperion will reimburse employees £2600 (US$5,000) for vehicles that achieve 45 miles per gallon or the equivalent of gasoline.


Carbon dioxide emissions from personal vehicles are a major cause of poor air quality in industrialised nations. Switching from a car that gets 20mpg to one that gets 45 mpg can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by as much as three tons per person per year and slow global warming.


Fuel-efficient vehicles are also economical to run resulting in a significant reduction in oil consumption


LINK www.hyperion.com/driveclean


INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY WILL LEAD TO JOB LOSSES


Increased productivity will lead to 2000 job losses in the UK Lubricants industry


Setting new standards in efficiency, 27 companies have been identified in the latest Plimsoll Portfolio Analysis - Lubricants as getting the very best from their people. The consequence for companies in the rest of the industry is that to compete, they will need to axe as many as 2000 jobs in the next 12 months.


By getting the most from employees, these 27 highly efficient companies are delivering nearly double the sales and 5 times the profit per person of an average UK lubricant company. Typically, they are generating £436,000 sales per person and £15,000 profit per person. Last year, the average UK lubricant company achieved £202,000 sales per employee and a mere £3,000 profit per employee.


At most risk of being left behind, 24 companies have been identified as only generating an average of £90,000 per employee. Their spend on salaries is far too high for them to be competitive, consuming 27% of sales. This figure should be 13% or less. If these companies are to catch up with new standards of productivity, 2000 jobs could be at risk.


David Pattison, Senior Analyst at Plimsoll Publishing, maintains, “As I see it, it is very easy to fall for the ‘we need more people’ screams from your staff. You have to watch this. It is vital to keep your sales per employee ratio and perhaps more importantly your percentage of sales used for salaries under control.


If you take nothing from our industry analysis at all, just remember three key facts. Get your sales per employee up to or above £202,000, your spend on salaries to 13% of sales or less, and control your debts. These are the ingredients for a healthy and competitive UK lubricants company.”


Pattison continues on why he sees job losses over the next 12 months at the 24 companies with productivity shortfalls. “Essentially there are two reasons. For 8 of them it’s a question of pure survival, as each one is currently under severe financial pressure. 16 on the other hand are fundamentally well run companies with only low productivity letting them down. Directors of these companies must act now to improve employee efficiency and catch up with the leaders.”


The latest edition of the Plimsoll Portfolio Analysis – Lubricants individually assesses the financial performance of the industry’s leading 229 players and rates each one based on its overall health. Sales per employee figures are included for the reader to identify the companies most likely to be considering redundancies.


The 400 paged analysis is available for £305 (Paper) or £499+VAT (Electronic). Order by visiting the link below or calling 01642 626400.


Readers of this publication will receive a 5% discount.


LINK www.plimsoll.co.uk


WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS! YORKSHIRE LUBRICANTS MANUFACTURER TAKES BRITISH SUPERBIKE TITLE.


Leeds based lubricants manufacturer Q8Oils is celebrating the end of the 2004 Think! British Superbike Championships at the top of the team and rider championship tables. With team rider John Reynolds crowned as 2004 Think! British Superbike Champion and Yukio Kagayama in third spot, Rizla Suzuki took the honours for top team and Suzuki ran away with the manufacturers title, giving technical partner Q8Oils a clean sweep!


“This win is a great justification of our Advanced Lubricant Technology Programme” commented Q8Oils’ director Stuart Dron.” We run many such partnerships throughout the automotive, industrial and agricultural lubricant markets with the aim of developing solutions for all types of applications, but much of the work goes unseen. To have an achievement at the top level of a sport such as the British Superbike Championship gives our engineers and support staff great recognition for their efforts.”


Dron’s comments followed recent events when Kuwait Petroleum International (KPI) had broken the news of the sale of its UK filling stations and Fuelcare operations and confirms that, for KPI’s other UK based operations, its business as usual with the Q8Oils flag flying high.


16 ISSUE NO. 64 DECEMBER 2004


The Q8Oils technical partnership with the Rizla Suzuki team is now in its third year. This is after finishing in the runner-up slot last year despite both riders suffering injuries that kept them out for part of the season, the team and its riders were dominant in this year’s championship achieving 25-rostrum finishes out of 26 starts on the awesome Suzuki GSX-R1000 racebike.


Playing their part in the success were the Q8Oils motorcycle engine lubricants, which have been developed, tested and proven with the Superbike team in the heat of competition. The Q8Oils technical team worked hard to assist the race engineers extract every last ounce of performance from the works Suzuki GSXR-1000.


Q8Oils’ motorcycle lubricants product co-ordinator Trevor Rolph has been delighted with the response from both the biking public and motorcycle trade at the company’s involvement in the British Superbike Championship. “Our position as technical partner and official sponsor to the Rizla Suzuki British Superbike Team provides Q8Oils with an excellent opportunity to develop and test products under the toughest possible conditions.


The latest Q8Oils Moto SBK Racing 10W-50 synthetic engine oil for example is a product of development work with the Rizla Suzuki GSXR-1000 and demonstrates just how much difference oil can make to overall performance. In controlled dynamometer testing at the Crescent Suzuki headquarters the team’s engineers found that Q8Oils’ fully synthetic engine oil gave an additional 3 BHP compared with the top of the range oil previously used. In a situation where the smallest of margins can give you a victory, this sort of advantage is a huge bonus.”


LINK www.Q8Oils.co.uk


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