The Hoyer Group has taken a strategic decision to hand over its regional service station supply and bitumen logistics businesses to an independent investor, Auctus Capital Partners. The activities involved largely comprise road tanker operations in Germany and the UK. The transaction is subject to approval by relevant competition authorities but, assuming it goes through, Hoyer says the new arrangement will “support the further professional development of its activities in order to seize the existing opportunities in this challenging market”.
The newly independent operation, to which existing staff will transfer, will be called Oxalis Logistics. The move is one result of a global strategic review of its businesses in light of current trends and the impacts they will have on its customers’ businesses. CEO Björn Schniederkötter explains more: “For Hoyer as a family business, quality, safety and reliability are a benchmark and a matter of course at the same time. However, we consider that the true added value of our services for our customers lies in the early further development of our own services in order to recognise the changing requirements of the producing industries at an early stage, and in developing suitable solutions as a strong partner.”
RIGHT TANKS, RIGHT PLACE
Divestment of the petroleum distribution business will, therefore, be more than matched by investment in other areas of Hoyer’s global business: the company says it is planning to put more than €100m into infrastructure, assets and digitalisation. This is likely to be focused on its global tank depot network, to help maximise asset utilisation, and Hoyer has already announced the opening of a new tank container storage area at its Houston hub. Work has also been announced for the depots in Pinthong, Thailand and Ludwigshafen, Germany.
In addition, Hoyer is expecting to expand its intermediate bulk container (IBC) and tank container fleets, so as to be able to fulfil customer demands for suitable equipment more quickly. In October Hoyer announced that it will take around 3,000 new tank containers by the end of this year, as part of a fleet update to meet the demand for specialist equipment for chemical products and liquid foodstuffs in European road and intermodal transport as well as in overseas logistics. The new tanks are being sourced from both China and South Africa.
In addition to physical assets, Hoyer is looking at the services it can offer. Schniederkötter says: “The creation of added value for our customers along the whole of the supply chain is important to us. That begins with our Supply Chain Solutions employees in the filling plants and extends to expanding our digital services in our customer portal.”
Giving more background to the broader strategy, Thomas Hoyer, chairman of the group’s advisory board, says: “We are setting our course for the future. As a family-managed business, we always approach these topics in a strategic, forward-looking way. We think and act in terms of generations. In the new arrangement, we will be able to concentrate on the further pursuit and direction of all of our European and global activities.”
“With the further development of the business models and the investment measures, the Hoyer Group is following its principle of long-term sustainable orientation and setting course for the coming years,” adds Schniederkötter.
