By Trevor Thwaites (St. George's correspondent)

ST.GEORGE's, Grenada: After buying over the Franchise from Shell a little more than a year ago, Sol Gas has begun a heightened campaign to force its product into the homes of more people across the region. The Shell Brand was officially launched last week across the region. “The rebranding of our truck fleet, offices, commercial fueling stations and LPG Businesses, forms part of our Marketing Strategy for this year to increase the awareness of Sol in the region and promote some new and exciting Sol products,” General Manager of the Southern Caribbean Roger Bryan said at the launch at the Grenada Trade Centre in St George’s, last week Thursday.

Sol is now operating in 13 countries across the region including Suriname, Guyana and Belize. Bryan says that the company has a unique regional focus. “The company is run by offices that make key decisions and a consumer oriented organization that is very highly responsive. The operations in the various countries are manned by local country mangers, which according to Bryan is truly Caribbean. “As a Caribbean owned company it has a truly Caribbean spirit and being involved in communities in which we operate, is essential to Sol’s vision,” Bryan said.

The company unveiled its distinct blue cylinders of LPG cooking gas, which is expected to replace Shell Gas across the region in the coming weeks. “Sol Gas will continue to be the same high quality as before and is fully interchangeable with Shell Gas. We have been working hard to improve the availability of LPG with an adequate amount of cylinders across the islands. We have purchased many new cylinders for the Grenadian market and expect our customers to be better served,” Bryan said.

He noted that the company is working with regional governments to play its part in being a cost effective energy supplier and partner. With gas prices at US$70 a barrel and rising, Sol is supportive of the initiative being undertaken by regional governments to cut energy spending through the introduction of energy saving devices and the exploration of renewable sources such as wind and the use of Diesel rather than gasoline. “We believe that substantial amounts can be saved by the use of Diesel rather than gasoline in the region,” he said.

Bryan indicated that 30% of the region’s resources can be saved with the complete switch to Diesel and pointed out that in places like Europe, 52% of the vehicles are already Diesel powered. Former official in the Grenada Board of Tourism Mrs Nikoyan Roberts is the local country manager of Sol Gas. She said that they will be providing complimentary delivery service for customers in St George’s and that deliveries will be made to the other parts of the island on different days.

Mrs Roberts said that the company is offering enhanced customer service in terms of the cleanliness and safety of its attractive blue cylinders. According to Bryan Sol Gas is the largest independent Oil Company in the region operating in some 13 countries with over 125 branded service stations, supplying commercial fuel, Aviation refueling services and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) among other services to more than two million customers across the region. The current campaign is intended to get into the homes of many more.


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