Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) trading and shipping company Petredec has completed the acquisition of Eastern Cape fuels distributor Quest Petroleum, which will now become part of the Petrefuel Business Division in South Africa.
Quest will become part of the Petrefuel group of companies, along with the former Jubane Petroleum and Oilco Wholesale businesses and a stablemate of Petregaz, a South African LPG wholesaler.
The addition of Quest to the portfolio expands Petrefuel’s geographic coverage beyond KwaZulu-Natal and sees Petredec take its first steps into non-fuels retailing.
“Shaun [Hitzeroth] and Jay [Smith] have done a fantastic job developing the Quest business and have enjoyed seeing it grow into a strong player in its home market of the Eastern Cape and beyond,” comments Petredec CEO Giles Fearn.
As part of Petrefuel, the company envisages the management and staff of Quest taking the combined business to even greater heights as it looks to establish operations on a national scale in South Africa.
Quest was founded in 2005 by Hitzeroth and Smith and began operations by distributing lubricants in the Port Elizabeth (recently renamed to Gqeberha) area, before entering the fuels market in 2007 to distribute diesel, petrol, illuminating paraffin and LPG across the Eastern Cape and Free State.
Apart from an extensive customer base in the wholesale sector, the business also supplies a network of more than 80 Quest-branded service stations and operates its own chain of convenience stores under the EZEE Exprez brand.