6 months ago
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TotalEnergies Jamaica and Lasco Financial Services Limited have entered into an agreement that will see taxi operators and budget-conscious motorists earning discounts on petrol purchases at one of Jamaica’s largest gas station chains.
The partnership is one plank of French-owned TotalEnergies new goal of deeper immersion into the Jamaican market.
The company disclosed at the launch of the Lasco Financial partnership that not only is it targeting the transport sector to broaden its market base, it intends to do more deals with Jamaican investors who want to become gas station operators.
As part of the latter move, TotalEnergies Jamaica intends to transition some of its company-owned, company-operated service stations to dealer-operated entities, according to Commercial Director Sanjeev Sheosankar.
Under the discount programme with Lasco Financial, the benefit will go to holders of the Lasco Gold Visa card, who will get between $3 and $6 in discounts at most of the TotalEnergies gas stations. Motorists will pay the full cost of the gas at the pump. The discount will be reflected as a 1.5 per cent cash back on the Lasco Gold Visa card.
Lasco Financial Managing Director Jacinth Hall-Tracey said the discount can be extended to other purchases at TotalEnergies facilities.
“Once they use their Lasco Gold Visa card at a point of sale of any one of 62 TotalEnergies gas stations or convenience stores, they can get this discount,” Hall-Tracey said at the launch of the partnership on Wednesday.
“Every day it’s $3 off per litre and you get a cash-back the following day on your card. You’ll see the monies come back on your card, but on double days, you get six dollars off and those will be announced in advance, so people have time to plan,” she said.
The Lasco Gold Visa card was first launched in July 2022. It’s accessible at any of the 75 Lasco Money agents nationwide, on Lasco Financial’s website, or through Lasco Financial Services app.
Hall-Tracey declined to say the number of users onboarded so far, but noted that her company is aiming to pick up at least 20,000 new customers over the next 12 to 18 months.
“That’s where we want to take it and we’re really excited to be using this partnership with Total, because it’s a win on all sides,” she said of the deal with the petroleum marketing company.
TotalEnergies SE, formerly Total SA, entered the competitive Jamaican market when they acquired a network of stations operated by Roy D’Cambre under the National brand, which then had about 10 per cent market share. The company next acquired the gas stations owned by Esso and, finally, Epping Oil in 2019. Now, TotalEnergies has 74 stations in Jamaica, ranking it third behind Texaco and Rubis.
Sheosankar said the top objective of the partnership with Lasco Financial was to break the perception that TotalEnergies was expensive and not priced competitively. Speaking at the launch, he said the French company wanted to get closer to the Jamaican public by offering them what they want.
“You come to our station, you’re going to find the food that you want. You come to our station, you’re going to find competitive prices and you’re going to find good service,” Sheosankar said, adding that the company is specifically targeting the Jamaican transport sector.
By targeting the transport sector, the company aims to drive traffic to their gas stations by offering competitive pricing on products.
“We want to be able to make sure now that we are getting into the psyche of the taxi driver, as well as to be able to show that we are giving you a good product at a good price,” Sheosankar added.
He also indicated that TotalEnergies would develop business by onboarding more Jamaicans as dealers.
“In running our service stations and having the service station run by a local, we are looking to diversify how our company is structured. Today, we have company-owned and company-operated sites. We want it to be dealer-operated sites, even if it’s company-owned, dealer-operated,” he said.
Currently, TotalEnergies has 17 company-owned, company-operated stations, but wants to bring the number down to less than 10.
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