theceomagazine.com | 113the market. It was more of a buyer’s market
during that time because if the distributors
were not happy, they could switch suppliers.
What was happening was that these big
distributors were just selling to sub-
distributors. But during my time, I started
approaching the sub-distributors. Before,
about 10 per cent of our customers
controlled around 80 to 90 per cent of the
volume. Later, around 60 per cent of the
volume came from small markets, so
we were able to have a lot of
smaller customers with smaller
volumes. We now rely less
on the big distributors.”
During his tenure,
Iñigo pioneered the use
of LPG (also known as
autogas) in the Philippines
as it was rarely used before.
“I developed the autogas
business here in the Philippines,”
Iñigo says. “The Philippine industry
didn’t understand autogas; most cars
used either gasoline or diesel. In 2006,
Chinese distributors really pushed for autogas,
and Liquigaz supported them in terms
of logistics and product availability. After
a partnership with Chinese companies,
we were then able to grow the entire autogas
business in the Philippines.”
Iñigo’s success followed him into SPI,
a partnership between Phoenix Petroleum
and Republic Gas Corporation. “Both
companies approached me and said that there
would be a change of leadership in Liquigaz,so I should consider building a new company
for them. That’s when I decided to resign and
I built the entire company from scratch,”
Iñigo says. SPI began to grow under Iñigo’s
stewardship. “We started small, but we’re
growing fast,” he says. “Right now,
our market share is 12 per cent,
but we see our company
growing to more than
25 per cent in the next
two years.” And at the
centre of the company’s
operating model is its
customer focus. “Since
we are wholesale, it’s more
about relationship selling.
We see customers as king,” Iñigo
says. “Marketing takes a driver’s seat.
It is the main focal point that tries to address
the requirements of the customer.”
Over the next few years, Iñigo plans
to expand the company’s reach right
across the more than 7,000 islands that
form the Philippine archipelago. “We have
the largest LPG storage capacity in the
Philippines at the moment. Our expansion
plan is to go into the smaller islands.
These islands require a smaller volume,
but are higher in terms of margin, so
we will be expanding aggressively into
these areas.”“The Philippine industry
didn’t understand
autogas; most cars used
either gasoline
or diesel.”
FAST FACT
South Korea is
the world’s
largest consumer
of autogas.Interview | INVEST