AFROX has struck a partnership deal with independent black woman-owned and managed LPG distributor, Gas Tank, to sell its Safety Gas into the informal and low-income areas of the East Rand.
The move confirms Afrox’s ongoing commitment to support expansion of its Enterprise Supplier Development network into areas where local knowledge and business experience provide growth opportunities for its partners.
Director of Gas Tank, Yvette Nayager, confirmed the company’s primary objective is to develop a portfolio of high-growth energy opportunities centred on providing consumers with a diversified energy mix that is competitive and innovative.
Gas Tank’s strategy is to supply LPG, using Afrox’s 3kg Safety Gas and Handigas cylinders, to Benoni’s informal businesses and low-income households. The emphasis of the offer will be on safety, convenience, affordability, and technology. To back its promise of convenience, Gas Tank has also opened the first-ever drive-through and collect LPG facility in the suburb of Northmead.
The deal with Gas Tank will also support low-income households to move away from the use of paraffin for cooking and lighting in favour of safer gas alternatives. Fires caused by overturned paraffin stoves have been responsible for over 120,000 low-income homes being destroyed since 2000. In the latest incident in Masiphumelele, a fire swept through part of an informal settlement, destroying more than 1,000 homes, and leaving thousands of people homeless.
“LPGas is safer than paraffin and rapidly becoming a standalone energy alternative,” said Afrox Business Manager LPG, Trevor Boshoff. “With South Africa’s unreliable electricity supply, LPGas is also the real go-to alternative fuel. Supply chains are reliable, and it is widely available for cooking, lighting, heating and even for running power generators.”
Gas Tank, a Level 1 BBBEE contributor, also sees the partnership with Afrox as an opportunity to help combat rising unemployment and contribute to the economic development of the East Rand. “The rental cylinders will be maintained by Afrox to ensure they are fully compliant with safety standards,” confirmed Nayager. “And as distributors, Gas Tank will fulfil specific domestic market needs such as after-hours and weekend deliveries.”
“Gas Tank has access to knowledge, experience and business contacts in the informal domestic and business gas market,” added Boshoff. “And for that reason, Afrox made the decision to appoint the company as the LPG distributor of Afrox cylinders to the informal residential, domestic and light commercial industries in Benoni.”
Boshoff confirmed Afrox had identified a wide scope for growth in the informal and domestic gas market in South Africa as low-income households begin to move away from the use of paraffin for cooking in favour of safer gas alternatives.
Moving into the low-income domestic market also aligns with Afrox’s corporate social initiatives as the opportunity now exists to establish gas re-sellers in these areas, thus promoting job creation in the informal sector, said Boshoff.
He added: “Afrox has already partnered with a number of black-owned and black woman-owned suppliers and realigned its procurement strategy to identify suitable 51% black-owned and 30% black woman-owned suppliers. Gas Tank is 100% woman-owned.”