FOREWORD: Expansion & Development: Bucking the Trend

The worldwide lubricants and fuel retail industry is a very congested and competitive market place with established multinational national and other companies all jostling for position. Whilst many of the majors have suffered in the recent global downturn, Gulf has managed to strengthen its position in the marketplace and look at the opportunities which have emerged as the market players reposition their portfolios.

Independence &Flexibility

A key reason for this success is that unlike the other majors in the industry, Gulf Oil International is an independent organisation, privately owned and flexible enough to react and make decisions quickly. In many of the industry majors, business decisions are slowed down by the ‘red-tape' of business processes and management approvals put in place to safeguard the risks of the company. This combined with the considerations of shareholders and share prices can mean that every major decision has an impact on the company and the brand as a whole. Gulf however is able to identify and invest in markets quickly, where the brand has an edge over the competition, whether that is historical, political or simply opportunistic and make that move quickly.

Local Development

As with the global operations flexibility is also a key contributory factor for local success. The Gulf proposition is attractive to companies due to its flexible and adaptable approach. Like the majors Gulf has a strict policy on the representation of the brand and promotes consistent and clear communications across the world. However unlike the major's distributors local parties are afforded a degree of flexibility to develop the brand and explore business ventures that assist in building the brand on a local level (as long as this does not conflict with the other Gulf parties of global operations). This means that while other major brands local operations are dictated by a global headquarters that are often based in a location far away, local decisions and actions can be made quickly to exploit opportunities that arise.

Targeted Expansion

In a competitive and changing environment, through its research and development, as well as its actions, Gulf is strengthening the Gulf brand worldwide and also to bringing it closer to its end users. Through a strategy that focuses on targeted expansion Gulf has been able to quickly highlight growth opportunities for the business and also build greater brand awareness amongst the business and consumers of the industry. These activities include:

- A constant organic growth in brand recognition sustained by a worldwide brand-pull, using Gulf's extremely successful partnership with Aston Martin Racing

- Step-wise business growth through significant acquisitions, the latest being Petromin (formerly a joint venture between Exxon Mobil and Aramco in the form of a lubricants network in Saudi Arabia)

- Entering new markets such as the new Gulf Oil Marine business, thus opening up the brand to new companies and new consumers.

- Focusing on a core brand value; Youth - Gulf is building for the future by increasing its presence in countries where the population demographic is young, such as India, Saudi Arabia

Summary

Many analysts feel that we are through the worst of the financial turmoil that we saw towards the end of 2008, however this instability is not yet over and the challenge now is to be focused enough to ensure that the brand remains at the cutting edge. The proactive strategy adopted by Gulf has maximised its market share in a very turbulent environment and has led to the consolidation of a strong set of owned operations and a network of established licensees across the world. Gulf companies across the globe are also proud to sponsor, support and invest in young people through innovative and exciting activities. Warmth and passion are demonstrated through its distributor's determination to better serve their customers and care about the social and environmental issues that matter. Today the Gulf brand is present in over 100 countries worldwide making it a truly ‘local global brand'.