National Petroleum News (NPN) has been the independent voice of the petroleum industry since 1909 as the opposition to Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. So, motor fuels marketing and retail is not just a sideline for us, it’s our core competency.
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MARKETING & SUPPLY INTERVIEW WITH DAVIDCROUSE, PRESIDENT AT OPW FUELING COMPONENTS Industry Voices OPW FUELING COMPONENTS valves and fittings, underground and above ground stor- age tank equipment, spill containers, overfill prevention devices, secondary containment sumps and flexible piping, tank gauging equipment and automated fuel management systems. Going into the PEI/NACS Show NPN interviewed David Crouse, president at OPW Fueling Components, for his insight on the industry and some notable equipment issues relative to marketers and retailers. O NPN: What have the recent disruptions to the economy meant to business? Crouse: Having a large global footprint is really an advan- tage today. While we have seen a relatively slow rebound in North America and Europe, we have seen a much quicker rebound in Asia/Pacific, Middle East, Africa and, interest- ingly enough, Latin American never really did slow down. To put it in perspective, 2008 was a record year for OPW and 2009 was a challenge for us, as it was for everybody in our industry. But, during the downturn we really did not scale back in aspects of our business such as product devel- opment and in our customer support efforts. As a result of that I don't believe we lost momentum during the down- turn. And, in 2010 we bounced almost all the way back to our 2008 levels and we anticipate surpassing that in 2011. NPN: How would you compare the U.S. market to what you see internationally? Crouse: In a relative sense all markets are important. But in the sheer magnitude of the fueling infrastructure in the United States, the North American market will always be very important. Environmental regulations will continue to drive business in the United States and, in many ways, the U.S. market has set the standard on a variety of environmen- tal regulations that are being adopted all over the world. So, the importance of the U.S. market is paramount. Now I'm contrasting it to other parts of the world, the emerging mar- kets, the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) 26 SEPTEMBER 2011 PW, A DOVER COMPANY, IS A GLOBAL LEADER IN commercial and retail fueling equipment, offering everything from dispensing nozzles for vapor recovery, gasoline, diesel, LPG, Hydrogen and CNG to swivels, breakaways, for example, have really enjoyed explosive growth over the last five years, which makes those markets very attractive. And really that growth is being driven by expansion and infrastructure as they build new highway systems, but also very much by the fact that you have a growing middle-class purchasing automobiles, many for the first time. If you look at the growth of automotive sales it is really indicative of what is in store for the fueling infrastructure and a lot of those countries. NPN: The nuts and bolts fuel infrastructure is not necessar- ily as sexy as some areas of petroleum marketing and retail- ing. What drives your company to put so much effort into new development in this area? Crouse: We really tackle new product development from three different angles. First, is the changing regulatory environment in both the U.S. and internationally, which can be quite a challenge at times. A lot of that originates in California through the California Air Resources Board and the U.S. EPA. That really drives a lot of OPW's new product development. The second part involves listening to custom- ers, taking their feedback and putting in the new product development. What we've heard loud and clear in recent years is can we provide products that will lower operating or installation costs, or the original price of the product. Customers are looking for a lower total cost of ownership. Finally, we work hard to understand where the market is going and try to anticipate some of the major trends such as diesel exhaust fluid. We watched DEF spread across the European continent and we've seen countries outside the United States, such as Pakistan, Brazil and Argentina embrace compressed natural gas at a much faster pace than the United States. So, we really try to anticipate where the market is going and focus a lot of product development around that. NPN: Speaking of DEF, what do you see happening in the U.S. market now? Crouse: I think DEF growth in North America has been very strong and I predict that will continue for the conceiv- able future. Eventually, all truck stops and many retail and commercial fueling sites will have DEF on-site. That's inevi- NPN Magazine n www.npnweb.com