{"id":807458,"date":"2025-01-20T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=807458"},"modified":"2025-01-21T14:17:11","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T12:17:11","slug":"caltex-petrol-stations-disappearing-across-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/807458\/caltex-petrol-stations-disappearing-across-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Caltex petrol stations disappearing across South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Astron Energy is rapidly rebranding Caltex petrol stations across South Africa as part of one of the most ambitious rebrands in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rebrand started two and a half years ago, and Astron Energy unveiled its first new-look petrol station in Brooklyn, Cape Town, on 8 September 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It followed Glencore\u2019s Astron Energy\u2019s acquisition of American giant Chevron\u2019s Southern African assets in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glencore is one of the world’s largest globally diversified natural resource companies headquartered in Baar, Switzerland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company has strong South African roots. Ivan Glasenberg, the man behind Glencore\u2019s success, was born and raised in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glasenberg attended the University of the Witwatersrand, which would become a training ground for many of Glencore\u2019s commodity traders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He joined Glencore in 1984 and became chief executive in 2002, a position he held until his retirement in 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Mini-Ivan\u2019 Gary Nagle, also a South African and Wits-trained accountant, took over from Glasenberg as Glencore’s chief executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Considering its leadership\u2019s strong South African roots, it is not surprising that Glencore became interested in Chevron\u2019s Southern African assets when they became available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven years ago, Glencore bought a majority stake in the assets from the Chevron group in Southern Africa for $970 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These assets included manufacturing, retail, and industrial supply businesses in South Africa and Botswana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glencore said the assets would provide an attractive downstream opportunity for its oil business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the acquisition, the Swiss company has invested money in South Africa to upgrade and maintain the refinery and expand its petrol station network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Astron spokesperson said the company has made significant investments in its Milnerton refinery and extensive retail network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, much of the attention has been focused on rebranding the 850 Caltex petrol stations around South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caltex service stations rebranded to Astron Energy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Motorists were introduced to the Caltex brand and the Caltex star logo in 1939. It was a joint venture between Standard Oil of California and Texaco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caltex had a strong presence in South Africa, with over 850 Caltex service stations across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2018, Astron Energy has operated the Caltex brand under a license agreement with Chevron.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in 2021, Astron Energy consolidated its operations under a single brand and announced the rebranding of all Caltex service stations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It unveiled its first new-look Astron Energy service stations in September 2022 in Brooklyn, Cape Town, followed by others in Limpopo, Amanzimtoti, and eThekweni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty regional teams across South Africa worked simultaneously to rebrand forecourts to Astron Energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2022, the company has accelerated its rebranding, and in November 2024, it announced that it had exceeded the 400 mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astron Energy CEO Thabiet Booley said each rebranded station brings them closer to becoming a brand that South Africans love and proudly call their own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Farouk Farista, general manager of retail, sales, and marketing at Astron Energy, said rebranding 400 sites has been no small task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a huge, complex project. We have set ambitious targets but always emphasise maintaining the highest safety and quality standards,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rollout extended beyond giving the old Caltex petrol stations new, bright colours and a new name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2024, Astron Energy signed a 10-year partnership extension agreement with FreshStop, one of South Africa\u2019s leading forecourt retail brands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The deal sees Astron Energy continuing its 15-year journey with FreshStop, part of the Food Lover\u2019s Market group of companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

330 service stations feature a FreshStop with Seattle Coffee at 126, Crispy Chicken at 154, Grill-to-Go at 102, Fill A Kota at 42, Sausage Saloon at 22, and Manhattan Coffee at 23.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Astron Energy service stations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Astron Energy is rapidly rebranding Caltex petrol stations across South Africa as part of one of the most ambitious rebrands in history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":807460,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[16152,10692,21454,9693],"class_list":["post-807458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-astron-energy","tag-caltex","tag-gary-nagle","tag-glencore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807458"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807458\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":807901,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807458\/revisions\/807901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}