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Socaz Entrepreneurship lubricates the wheels of success.

Luc Niessen, director between 2000 and 2017: "There was an immediate click with Gilde and finally someone was asking ‘How’s business?' "

"I suppose it all started on the street. As a child I played with the son of one of the directors of Kroon Oil and he noticed how I was always trading things. In 1991 he brought me in as a management assistant, straight from college. Socaz had just been taken over by Shell at the time. At first, I worked with the marketing and sales division of Kroon Oil in Almelo, then with Oliebron in Zwijndrecht, which was the production center. In Zwijndrecht there was plenty of scope for improving the business and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wanted to get ahead and saw so many opportunities."

Success is the best motivation.

"At the end of the Nineties rumor had it that Shell wanted to sell Socaz. I was director of the holding company at the time and because I was sure that Socaz could grow much faster outside Shell I made an offer. But Shell wasn’t open to the idea back then so I kept working hard to make the company even stronger.

I also found ways to invest in machinery and other hardware, to increase our production capacity. My growth philosophy is simple: success is the best motivation. By involving our employees and making them part of the growth, everyone was stimulated to do even better. In six years we managed to triple our profits."

“Having Gilde as a shareholder was like a breath of fresh air. Finally, I was free to get down to business.”

Luc Niessen, CEO Socaz Group (2000-2017)

How’s business?

"Working within Shell increasingly became a matter of covering risks, with little room left for entrepreneurship. No one ever asked ‘How’s business?’ during a shareholders’ meeting, for example, so every year I kept asking whether I could take over the company. Then, in 2006, there was white smoke; Shell was willing to hold a limited auction. Unfortunately, a management-led buy-out was not one of the options on the table. I discovered that there were two private equity contenders and that they both preferred to take over companies with incumbent management. Well, of course, I was that management and in this case one and one definitely made two! Together, we succeeded in taking over Socaz."

Doing what you say you will.

"Having Gilde as a shareholder was like a breath of fresh air. Finally, I was free to get down to business. Together we invested in additional buildings for storage, tank farms, blenders and pipelines ... which really gave the business a boost. We also acquired Putoline Oil, VAT Oil and Exrate. Our infrastructure, automation and organization were all well up to scratch, so it was easy to scale things up. But Gilde made it possible to do business and in just six years we tripled our profits. In 2011 we sold Socaz to Cipelia, a French specialist in lubricating oils. Afterwards, Socaz doubled in size again, which I’m very proud of. The secret, I reckon, is doing what you say you will. And if you can do that better than your competitors, the sky really is the limit.”

Visit the website

See what growth and collaboration can do for a business:

>100

million liters of
lubricants per annum

>90

countries

>16.000

unique product / packaging combinations

Team

Remko Jager

Year of investment

2006

Industry

Manufacturing

Location

Zwijndrecht, the Netherlands
Almelo, the Netherlands

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