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IFPA Southern Africa Conference – Building on the success of PMA's Fresh Connections Conference and Expo.

02 August 2022 | Ivana | Partner Content

PMA's Fresh Connections conference and expo are back this years, and although it has a new name, it will still be the same vibrant event as it has been for the past decade.

Introducing MPACT plastic containers new and improved plastic folding crates – now with active locks

20 July 2022 | Ivana | Partner Content

Thousands of fresh fruit and vegetables are transported by road every day. Traditionally this was done in wooden or cardboard containers.

SA’s number 1 fuel and convenience retailer leads the way in payment technology

17 November 2021 | Ivana | Uncategorised

Recognising the key role that digitisation is playing in the financial lives of more and more of its customers, South Africa’s leading fuel and convenience retailer Engen is prioritising electronic payment solutions at the core of its customer offering.

With over 3.4 billion litres of fuel pumped from Engen forecourts in 2020, or approximately 25% of the local market, and some 327 million retail customer transactions honoured in that time, Engen is witnessing a sharp increase in digital payments across its market leading network of 1 000+ service stations.

“While the Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the adoption of digital payments and likely accelerated its use by a few years, Engen was already witnessing and responding to a growing move to digital payments - a shift that research suggests may ultimately lead to a cashless society,” comments Khalid Latiff, Engen’s General Manager: Corporate Strategy and Communications.

A recently released report by PwC titled ‘Payments 2025 and Beyond’, estimates cashless transaction volume growth in Africa of 78% from 2020-25 and 64% by 2030, meaning that the number of cashless transactions on the continent will be approximately double to triple the current level.

“One of the unintended consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns is that more and more people commenced, or upped, their use of digital technology to shop and transact, which has served to quicken the spread of mobile-first behaviour and lessened daily reliance on cash,” observes Latiff.

“As such, Engen has made proactive advancements in the digital payment space over the past 18 months to ensure we serve our customers in a manner that they demand.”

It has seen Engen pioneer a fuel and convenience store app for motorists with release of the Engen 1app in July 2020, conveniently offering its South African customers a safe and contactless way to settle transactions across its 1 000+ service stations.

“As South Africa again eases its Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, and ahead of the Festive Season, many more motorists are expected on the road and to visit the country’s favourite and ‘coolest’ petrol station brand* - Engen,” says Seelan Naidoo, Engen General Manager: Retail.

“In preparation, we encourage all motorists to download the Engen 1app because it offers a safe customer service experience, as there is no touching of devices, cards or cash required.”

By downloading and using Engen 1app, motorists do not need to carry cash or cards to make fuel purchases; while loyalty points are automatically registered with Engen’s prestigious loyalty partners, Clicks Clubcard and FNB’s eBucks.

“Engen 1app’s digital wallet allows motorists and shoppers to load and store their payment methods, such as cards or accounts, on their mobile devices,” adds Naidoo.

“It also allows you to send fuel funds to friends and family through the app. For example, if your child has run out of money for petrol and they have an important interview to get to or a university exam to sit, you can send money to their 1card stored in the app for them to fill up with fuel or shop at Engen.”

According to a report by FIS, a leading financial services technology group, digital-wallet-based transactions increased globally by 7% in 2020.

Says Latiff: “Their prediction is that digital wallets will account for more than half of all global e-commerce payments by 2024, as consumers transfer from card-based transactions to QR code-based ones.”

This is conveyed in the Engen 1app’s encouraging growth, with an 129% increase in downloads between January and October 2021, a 102% jump in registrations and a 143% increase in total payments.

“The increase in the use of the Engen 1app reaffirms our customer lens focus on digital and is borne out by the app’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 92 (up from 90 since the beginning of 2021),” says Naidoo.

Other benefits of Engen 1app include an interactive Engen service station locator, a vehicle logbook to track your mileage, full record of your purchase history and special promotions, all offering customers a gateway to the future of convenience motoring.

Customer Sebastian Aitken is impressed, leaving the following review: “Smooth registration and login, quick load and ease of access with biometrics!”

As is Ettione Ferreira, who received prompt assistance from the Engen1app support team: “Very impressed with the willingness to assist and enjoying the app so far.”

But it is the latest innovation that has really captured the imagination of customers - Engen 1app now also features a ‘Tip an Attendant’ function, which allows motorists and shoppers across South Africa to tip deserving Engen staff at their discretion for the warm and friendly service that they have long been renowned for.

In partnership with Telkom Financial Services, this new feature has been specifically designed to enable motorists and Quickshop customers to tip Engen petrol attendants and cashiers via Engen 1app for efficient service, without having to reach for their wallets or rumble about in a glove box for loose change.

Comments customer Marco Barone: “You don’t have to touch anything like cards or pens to make the transaction and you can leave the attendant a decent tip that you know will go to his eWallet. Five Star rating! Well deserved!”

The tips are paid into the private Telkom Pay Wallet registered to the Engen forecourt staff member who offered outstanding customer service, and the full amount is available immediately to them for use as they see fit.

Adds Engen’s Naidoo: “Customer service and constant innovation are key drivers for Engen, which is why we are extremely excited to bring our customers ‘Tip an Attendant’ as a way to acknowledge and support our hardworking pump attendants and Quickshop cashiers.

“This is just another example of the consistent focus Engen places on invigorating the brand and its associated offerings so that it remains a compelling, top of mind destination for fuel and convenience shopping," adds Naidoo.

South Africans have long come to expect consistent innovation from Engen, with the company revolutionising the local retail petroleum sector with the introduction of the original ‘vacation station’ Engen 1Stop concept in 1986 and the Quickshop convenience store concept in the early 1990s.

Since then, Engen added the super successful Woolworths Foodstop concept in the early 2000s and leading global confectionary brand, Krispy Kreme in 2019, amongst partnerships with various other industry leading convenience offerings, amongst which are also Engen’s ongoing partnership with prestigious rewards programmes, eBucks and Clicks Clubcard.

Courier company DSV also has 250+ lockers strategically located at Engen service stations nationwide, facilitating a safe and convenient way for Engen customers to send and receive parcels.

“Staying relevant and placing the customer at the very heart of our business is an over-arching priority for Engen, which means we continue to invest great effort into remaining an attractive stop-over for motorists,” says Naidoo.

This relevance is reflected in Engen’s more than decade long success in both the Sunday Times Top Brands and the Sunday Times Generation Next awards, with the company named South Africa’s “Favourite Petrol Station” brand and “Coolest” petrol station for 10 years (2011-2020) and 12 years (2010-2021) years respectively.

Engen’s also leads in Net Promoter Score (NPS) against its industry competitors. Says Latiff: “We continue to listen to the needs of South Africans and formulate energy and convenience solutions that make their lives infinitely better.

“And whilst we are grateful and humbled by the consistent recognition we receive from our customers, they can be assured that South Africa’s No.1 fuel and convenience company remains passionate about progress, always seeking to create meaningful experiences and ever determined to be considered a progressive energy and solutions partner enriching lives for a sustainable future.”

So, don’t delay….download the new Engen 1App today by simply visiting the Google Play or Apple App store.

Barcode your products and get them into retail stores quickly and effortlessly

11 November 2021 | Sandra | Partner Content

Although we don’t pay much attention to them, barcodes appear on all the food items we buy at the stores.

Woolworths is on a hiring drive to ramp up its digital expansion

07 October 2021 | Sandra | Uncategorised

Retailer Woolworths is on a hiring drive as it expects significant changes in South Africa’s retail sector and customer shopping behaviour brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Butchery - Meaty Matters

16 August 2021 | Christopher | Uncategorised

Engen celebrate Coastals’ 75th birthday with some super specials

16 July 2021 | Sandra | Uncategorised

Engen and distribution partners, Jubane and Petrefuel are proud to be associated with Coastal Farmers’ Co-operative Limited and wish to congratulate them on their 75th anniversary.

Editorial - Let them eat bread

22 June 2021 | Christopher | Uncategorised

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Editorial

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Let them eat bread!

There has been a flood of opinions as to what the ‘new normal’ is going to look like. What to get ready for, what to do to be ahead of the curve.We are being bombarded with so much information. Everyone is selling the next solution. The question is, “What is the perfect decision?” As much as we want it to be an exact science, Aki Kalliatakisexplains the human factor and how to capitalise on problem solving with a switch of mind-set rather than money thrown at a problem – with the upside of happy customers.
There is nothing quite like the smell of freshly baked bread. And a luscious selection of sweet treats and savoury delights on display has led many a budget- conscious shopper astray from their neatly planned grocery list. But what exactly is happening in bakery in the current climate? Has customer behaviour and demand changed?
Health, and affordability, is top of everyone’s mind when choosing food, and baked goods are no exception.

However, this category has the benefit of including both affordable staples and comfort food, and so bakery continues to grow! Marguerite Saunders has looked at all angles in the supermarket bakery.\

GG Alcock reports on bakery in the kasi sector (informal market). This is part of the series Excavating Silence. Here is an extract from the story Let them eat bread...

By 3am the first vetkoek are frying into a delicious golden brown, and the crowds startpassing by. Downtown Jo’burg is a frenetic mix of slums, corporate head offices of banks, and government buildings – the first and third worlds slammed together in a heaving uncomfortable mess, the rich resenting the poor, the poor aspiring for just a tiny fraction of what the rich have. More than half a million commuters stream to and from Park Station daily and many stop at Mbandze’s table top. His hands moving in a blur, Mbandze grabs handfuls of dough and expertly rolls each into a perfectly round and identically sized lump and drops them into the boiling hot cooking

The insights that GG brings to this sector of the market are invaluable. The scope of this market is astounding. Informal, untapped and growing exponentially.

When speaking to Retailers, Manufacturers and Vendors about out-of-stocks, there is one issue that is almost guaranteed to come up – The Distribution Centre (DC). Chris du Preez writes that It would seem as if the DC gets blamed for almost all ‘out-of-stocks’, and that any discussion of out-of-stocks is therefore of little or no value, until such time as the DC solves its out-of-stock problem. But is this really true?

In his article Online merchants: Check your T&Cs before they bite, Dr Howard Rybko, CDO at Syncrony Digital, says that Terms and Conditions DO apply. Many online merchants think T&C’s are a chore. They palm the job off to some sucker in their team, which leads to a last minute find & replace of some pinched T&Cs or else a kick down the road to a legal person somebody knows. Either choice carries too much risk for his liking. If you want to limit some potential unexpected costs, this article is a must read.

CASE CLOSED
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The value benefit

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Double glazed glass doors with Argon gas fill for superior insulation.
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Flex modelling means glass panels are customised to fit existing cabinets and are tailored to suit each store’s specific environment.

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Why your finance executive is probably wrong

Aki Kalliatakis

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Right up front, let me tell you I love science, I love fascinating explanations of what I see around me, and logical arguments that make things so clear for us. I love how engineers use science to build and create the most incredible things that make our lives so amazing, from the tiniest microorganisms to massive power stations and even remarkable structures in space as we explore other planets. And in a business context, it’s good that we have ways of scientifically organising things and writing algorithms so we don’t end up disorganised chaos in logistics, nor be forced to perform awful boring tasks to take care of customers. In theory, economics and its various laws work beautifully, and finance people have wonderful

models that we have to use to make sure that we manage and measure financial success and efficiency properly. They assume that in every business interaction there is perfect information

and perfect trust. Except, when it comes to human beings, like staff and customers, it doesn’t work. That’s not the reality. That’s why finance and operations and IT people hate marketing and sales people. It would be great if everything in the world was logical, rational and predictable. But it isn’t.

In military campaigns, being logical and efficient is useless – because it makes us predictable, and if you are predictable you do exactly what the enemy expects. You've just lost the war.

But when it comes to people, it’s also true that we can’t be logical and consistent, because that’s not how we evolved over thousands of years. If we had to stop and think every danger through

logically, basically we would end up dead. There was almost always not enough information to make a perfect decision, so instincts caused us to make speedy, reliable, straightforward and non-disastrous decisions.

If you saw a long green shiny thing, you had to react immediately, or the green mamba might kill you. On my way back from doing the school run this morning, I saw a whole bunch of runners, walkers and cyclists exercising on the main road in our suburb. It doesn’t make logical sense: there’s a ton of traffic and exhaust fumes, the pavements are all broken so most of them are on the road, literally in danger of being run over by an errant taxi, and just one block away there are fume-free, beautiful and quiet roads on which we can safely exercise.

But they stick to the main road. Why? Because they are performing for the crowd, and perhaps need the spirit of other people to try harder.

Economists and finance people assume when we buy a phone or a car or an outfit, or even groceries, that we aren’t interested in the brand, in the way we are treated, nor in the person who sells it to us.

All we’d be interested in are the logical and objective specifications. That is rarely true. The moment we assume that customers are completely logical, where ignore people and their subjectivity, their quirks and impulses, and their idiosyncrasies, it just doesn’t make sense anymore.
Now, just before you throw up your hands in defeat, remember there is some really good news here.
A few months ago I was on a slightly-delayed

flight and as we landed, we saw out the window that we’d stopped out in the open and buses were waiting for us.

The default behaviour was that everyone groaned and immediately started complaining about how useless the airline was, until a few seconds later the pilot said, “Folks, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that the airport is really busy tonight and we don’t have a spot at the walkways.” And then, after a short pause he said, “The good news is that the buses will take you directly to the entrance nearest the exit so you won’t have to walk and drag your baggage so far.”

Just one statement, just a few seconds, and everything changed. All he did was change people’s perceptions. He turned it around. The scientific reality is that nothing actually changed – but people’s minds were in a different place. With the other perception, we realised there was actually an upside! But there’s more good news: When companies realise that their customers are unhappy about something, the immediate logical choice is to spend a ton of money to fix the problems. What’s so intriguing is that instead of doing that, first look at how to change perceptions, and specifically look at it from a customer’s perspective, through their eyes, not the CFO’s eyes.

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01 December 2016 | Lifestyle

Get ready for the new season: This year yellow is everything in fashion!

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Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Crasfeugiat a, sit amet adipiscing tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed ipsum. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Crasfeugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, Aenean imperdiet sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed ipsum. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, Aenean imperdiet sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed ipsum. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, Aenean imperdiet sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed ipsum.

Photograph: Jay Jefferson

Joline Harrison

I am a passionate designer and fashion lover. In my free time, I spend a lot of time writing, shopping and cuddling my cat.

This is how you plan your wedding from the beginning
All about the KEDZ fashion show in New York
I tested exciting new brand NC INC's products
The best tips for skin care during winter
The perfect makeup can be done in less than two minutes

Costs, location, registry: This is how you plan your wedding from the beginning.
Don't want to miss the KEDZ fashion show in New York? Get all the facts here.
NC INC is an exciting new brand and I tested their products for three months.
Skin care in winter—the best tips for protection during the cold season.
When you're in a hurry: The perfect makeup can be done in less than two minutes.

Food Index Option

We Love to Share – Get Inspirations, Tips and Tasty Recipes

Recipe: French Macarons

06 October 2018

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The Magic of Cupcakes

02 October 2018

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Garnishing – A Feast for the Eyes

29 September 2018

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Garnishing – A Feast for the Eyes

29 September 2018

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Nuts, Kernels, Seeds – Bread With a Bite

13 September 2018

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How Much Coffee Is Healthy?

09 September 2018

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Styling Tips

and random beauty gossip.

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Seven Tips For Growing a Fall & Winter Beard

29 November 2017 | Dario Rossi

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The Color of the Year 2017

28 November 2017 | Dario Rossi

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Creative Blue Hair Color Ideas

27 November 2017 | Dario Rossi

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