For more than a hundred years, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. has been at the forefront of helping the Philippine economy by providing mobility solutions to customers all over the country. As the Philippines starts to recover from the havoc wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, Pilipinas Shell wants to be there, too, in part by transforming its retail network from traditional gasoline stations to full service mobility sites.
These modern Shell Mobility sites are designed to cater to the needs of all kinds of road warriors, from the pedestrian to the cyclist to the weekend enthusiast and to the hardcore bus and truck drivers who transport people and goods all over the country.
These mobility sites come with not just the pumps for dispensing petroleum products but also convenience stores, quick service restaurants with partners, lube bays and car wash stations. Soon, these will also be ready to service demand when electrical vehicles become an integral part of the transportation landscape. Competitive advantage
Pilipinas Shell boasts of a mobility network of more than 1,100 locations nationwide and Randy del Valle, vice president and general manager for Shell Mobility, believes this gives the company a formidable competitive advantage against competition. About 90 percent of the Philippine population can be reached within 24 kilometers from a Shell Mobility site, and the investment in the network has not stopped given the continued expansion of the country’s road network thanks to the government’s centerpiece “Build, Build, Build” program.
“We continue to grow and strengthen our mobility network as we capitalize on the government’s ‘Build, Build, Build’ program of developing more road infrastructure for the Filipinos. We have this advantage and we can adapt to appropriate products and services needed to serve the mobility needs of our customers and community. To do this, we will continue to execute our proven business model including strategically building more mobility sites nationwide,” Del Valle said.
“From urban centers to rural locations, our mobility sites served as community hubs where agriculture, fishing, transportation, construction and commercial trading source their fuel, lubricants and general merchandise requirements. Now more than ever, Shell continues to play a pivotal role in business development and innovation, supporting the economic growth of the country amid energy transition,” he added.
Convenient stops
These 1,100 mobility sites that employ a combined 16,000 forecourt service crew, likewise, serve as convenient stops to commuters and visitors, thus enabling ease and convenience for travel to various tourist spots. Travel curbs have remained in place as the Philippines continues to battle the spread of COVID-19, but the downtime has been used productively to fully prepare the sites for the travel rush that will inevitably follow.
“We are present in almost all islands in the Philippines including Palawan, Mindoro, Boracay, Bantayan and Camiguin. While we sustain our brand leadership in the fuels category, we have expanded our offers to cater to nonfuels needs of our customers and community. To date, our mobility sites have more than 400 Select stores and another 400 vehicle servicing centers where we can fulfill your personal needs and that of your vehicles,” he said.
“We are supporting local producers such as Pampanga’s Best and Virginia, frozen meat supplier in Luzon and Cebu, Mayani, our supplier for fresh produce, SIBBAP (Silangan Ibabao Batis Bulihan Araneta Proper), our Batangas based seamstress of our face masks, Polly’s, our supplier of famous chocolate cake in Magallanes and Vandep, the famous Pastel of Cagayan de Oro as part of our unique finds in our stores. We have utilized our mobility sites as distribution platform for these local suppliers and provide an opportunity to showcase our very own Filipino craft and delicacies,” Del Valle added.
Transformation
The transition to the Shell Mobility platform is just the latest in a series of transformations that Pilipinas Shell has gone through as customers’ needs changed.
In 1993, for example, the group opened the first Shell Select Store, the first branded service station-based convenience store in the country, as clients needed to get more than just gas from the stations.
As for the latest chapter, it started in 2018 with Shell Mango in Cebu City as the pilot site, where added services were provided to drivers, riders, commuters and even the community around it.
“We continue to add, evolve our stations. We have added mobility sites in Cebu, Metro Manila, and even in Lucena, Quezon; Cavite; Bacolod, Negros Occidental; Marilao, Bulacan; and Cagayan De Oro. All of these stations will showcase integrated mobility offers, sustainable elements and digital touchpoints. By the end of the year, we should have more than 30 pure mobility sites across the county,” Del Valle said.
Pilipinas Shell’s investment in a more sustainable future in operations and digitalization is also expressed in these Shell Mobility sites that connect the company directly with its legion of loyal customers.
Mobility sites, for example, boast of sustainable elements like solar panels and the innovative Shell Eco-Bricks made of recycled plastics like the packaging of its lubricants to promote a circular economy.
“In fact, the first commercial building in the Philippines made out of recycled plastic is our mobility site in Plaridel, Bulacan. This is also the first mobility site in Shell around the world with this offer. All these efforts on low carbon operations will make our sites operate with more than 30 percent less energy consumption [versus traditional stations] and we continue to find more ways to fully reduce carbon use in our operations as our contribution to Shell’s global aim of net zero ambition,” Del Valle said.
“We are ready to serve cleaner energy solutions and to bring in Royal Dutch Shell’s technology in the country and evolve once needed, we will continue to help lead and shape the mobility future of the Philippines,” he added.
