UKLA President’s Report


This month sees the lubricant sector descend on Windsor for the ICIS World Base Oils conference, a change from its usual London home.


Indeed change and base oils seems to be the order of the day with the sector having witnessed prices rising to up to five-fold their historic pre-pandemic prices last year, falling slightly over the autumn and rebounding once again since the spring of this year following events in Eastern Europe.


Just as airlines have struggled to resume normal operations in a post COVID world, so too have base oils supplies been left lagging behind accelerating demand with consumers quicker to return to nearer- normal levels of activity.


Economics will always teach us that demand outstripping supply creates cost pressures in the marketplace and over recent months we have seen rising energy prices and increased fuel costs lead to demands for higher wages and increased inflation in the economy.


UEIL President’s Report


The acceleration of the EU’s green agenda, the electrification of car parks, the growth of car sharing, the move towards greater efficiency and longer interval drains - these trends are threatening the automotive and industrial lubricants market in Europe.


Value growth will be essential to win in a business environment with dwindling demand. Successfully capturing value growth opportunities requires strategies to access areas of value growth. Given the very diverse nature of the lubricant market, it will be important to identify the target segments where a premium offer is valued, the specific needs of these segments and how best to meet them. Solutions could include developing specialised high-performance products providing tangible value to customers, or creating a lubricants plus offering incorporating value-added services to achieve greater customer engagement and loyalty.


Understanding the customer’s requirements starting from the sales interaction is essential to develop the best solution for a specific segment and customer. A shift from a transactional to a consultative approach,


4 LUBE MAGAZINE NO.169 JUNE 2022


So much so that today we talk about the prospect of stagflation – a stagnating economy subject to inflationary cost pressures.


Where is the silver lining in all of this?


If governments can keep wages under control through monetary policy, control of the money supply, and fiscal measures such as interest rates and taxation, then these inflationary pressures could be temporary, held back by people’s individual purchasing power.


If fiscal measures are not effective at holding back people’s propensity to consume then we risk turning the clock back to the 1970s of high inflationary pressures and higher wages eroding people’s real purchasing power.


And no government entering an election period can risk falling living standards amongst voters.


Andrew Goddard, UKLA President


from selling products to selling solutions, and from a product- centric to a customer-centric sales model is needed to generate short-term revenue and long-term growth.


To start or progress along the value-based selling journey, we invite you to attend a two-hour workshop by Plan.Grow.Do, a company specialising in value-added selling training for the lubricants and additives industry.


This workshop takes place in Athens, Greece, on 19 October, prior to our Annual Congress running until 21 October. Registration can be done simultaneously with the congress registration, now open via the UEIL website. For more information, please do not hesitate to contact the UEIL Secretariat or myself.


I look forward to meeting you all in Athens to create more value for our industry.


Valentina Serra-Holm, UEIL President


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