Chief Executive Officer of Star Oil Ghana, Philip Tieku, says his company has decisively shattered the long-held belief that low fuel prices automatically mean poor quality.
He declared that the company’s consistent market dominance and customer loyalty prove that affordability and quality can go hand in hand.
Speaking on JoyNews’ PM Express Business Edition with George Wiafe on Thursday, November 6, Mr Tieku said the evidence is clear that Star Oil’s model has defied the critics who predicted the company’s collapse under price competition.
“The jury is out there. The large majority of customers are buying from Star Oil, and that’s why we are number one. It’s obvious that we are doing something very right,” he said.
He explained that the company’s success lies in its deliberate efforts to protect quality at every stage of its supply chain.
According to him, Star Oil has invested heavily in systems that ensure accuracy at the pump and transparency in customer engagement.
“Our key strength is how we protect quality tangibly by the things we’ve done in the supply chain, how we ensure that customers are not cheated at the pump by using tangible means to investigate and ensure that our attendants cannot do that. And if they do that, there’s evidence to show,” he said.
He added that the company’s post-service engagement with customers further strengthens trust and reinforces its reputation for delivering the right product and the right quantity.
“Because of that, they will seldom do that, and also our ability to engage customers post-service and make sure that they have assurance that they receive the right product, the right quantity, etc. And if there are real issues, transparently engage them on that, for me, is our strength,” he explained.
Mr. Tieku said the enduring perception that low prices mean inferior quality was not based on fact but was rather cultivated by some marketing interest groups within the petroleum industry.
“I think that perception is one that, unfortunately, historically, in Ghana, has been pushed by some marketing interest groups,” he said.
He attributed much of this misconception to poor corporate governance practices that once plagued the downstream oil sector, where weak oversight allowed smuggled or adulterated products to compromise quality.
“Historically, we’ve had very poor corporate governance structures in the industry. And that is why you can get a smuggled product into a station, etc., and compromise on quality,” he noted.
But he said Star Oil has changed that narrative by combining efficiency with integrity, offering quality fuel at competitive prices while maintaining customer trust.
“Even though in principle you can get a perfectly good quality product sold at the prices that we sell at, in the minds of customers, historically, the perception was that once the product is a low price, it means it’s a low quality. That’s what we’ve successfully bashed,” he stressed.
Mr Tieku said Star Oil’s rapid growth and high customer retention rates are proof that the company’s strategy is working.
“You cannot be growing at the pace we are growing year on year, retaining your customers year on year, and be selling inferior products,” he said confidently.