Juan José Martí­nez Trillos President, Primax Colombia

What are the tenets that guide Primax’s evolution in Colombia?

We aim to continue having sustained profitable growth during the next five years with investments between USD40 and 50 million per year. Our first goal is to focus on profitable business opportunities. Second, we must continue having internal financial discipline to responsibly handle our resources and processes, together with the governance dynamics that a strong and solid structure entails. Third, we want to continue developing a fresh, attractive, and evergreen value proposition to attract new and keep existing retail and industry customers and end consumers. Our value proposition encompasses various angles. One of them focuses on innovating in developing premium products and increasing our brand presence around the country. In the end, this should provide more possibilities to retail, B2B, and fleet customers throughout the entire Colombian territory. We also want to keep progressing with the implementation of new technologies across our network to enable maximizing our dealers’ profitability in their sites. Another key pillar is operational excellence. Finally, we focus on developing our human talent, as they are the engine that drives everything we do.

Could you tell us more about Primax’s impact at on economic and social level, regarding the development of Colombian regions?

We provide employment opportunities through our 11 terminals across the country. They are development hubs in the municipalities and regions where they are located. Our dealers, with a network of around 850 sites, also generate around 15,000 direct jobs. In Primax’s case, this year we have focused our efforts on supporting the Red Cross through fuel donations to enable the mobilization of health workers around the country. We also supported the Parque Biotematico Megua in the Atlántico department through funds to protect and care for an amazing array of tropical flora and fauna species during the pandemic. From an environmental point of view, we worked closely with the Colombian Institute of Technical Regulations (ICONTEC) to obtain the sustainability seal in the development category, as well as the certification as a carbon-neutral company. Finally, we are the only wholesaler in Colombia to sign with the Ministry of Environment a document to actively help the country meet its goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 51% by 2030, and enabling to be carbon neutral by 2050.