About Wolf Oil Corporation NV and WOLF brand autoExpert was told about by Regional Manager Dimitar Dimitrov, who visited Ukraine during NEXUSAUTO & NEXUSTRUCK FORUM, organized by the purchasing union NEXUS Automotive International and its representative office Nexus Automotive Ukraine.
The Belgian company Wolf Oil Corporation NV was founded in 1955 in Hemiksem, near Antwerp. Why there? The transport connections are very good there and the logistics are easy to organize. It's also confirmed by the fact that there are several companies in the same area that produce oils.
We are engaged only in oil production. That's our main business. Wolf Oil Corporation NV is a privately held, family-owned company founded in 1955. It is one of the top five independent oil producers. I say "independent" because we are not connected to any oil extracting company.
Last year we produced and sold 120 million liters of oil with a factory capacity of 150 million per year.
We have good partnerships with OEMs (deliveries to automakers' conveyors) and OES (deliveries to car manufacturers' branded service stations). For some of them we produce so called original oils. For example, we produce for GM and Opel - both first fill and aftermarket.
We do tests on our products with the original equipment manufacturers and get the appropriate approvals.
We have 10 automated product production lines. Production is ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certified, which also says that we care about the environment, which is very important.
A very important event for us is that in 1995 the first stage of automatic mixing was launched. We do somewhere around 7,500 product mixes a year. The next important year for us is 2012, when we focused on our brand. Up until that point, our brand was somewhere between 5-7% of our total product volume. After that period, when we did a complete rebranding (we changed not only the packaging and the label, but also the approaches in marketing), our brand WOLF already takes over 50% of the total volume, as of 2019, which is about 65-70 million liters per year.
At the current stage, we are very actively developing programs of work with service stations, including investment programs.
In our work with clients we focus on the right selection of products. Therefore, we have 11 product categories of the highest quality, which we offer together with our partner distributors, creating a perfect mix of products.
We are always one step ahead - we have products that have not even appeared on the secondary market yet (they are only on the primary market). For example, for hybrid cars and the latest generation cars. This makes it possible to enter authorized warranty service stations.
Of course, we also produce antifreezes, and auto chemistry, and lubricants, but we do not focus on them. If we do not have something - we will make it quickly.
Our brand is premium, but at a good price. One of our strategies is to enter the market very quickly. To do this, we choose the distributor very carefully and work in tandem with him. And of course, our 64 years of international distribution experience helps.
We already have more than 50 approvals of passenger car manufacturers (you get an approval only when the product is tested). For commercial vehicles we already have more than 120 approvals. There are a lot of approvals for gear oils. For example, we went a very long way with ZF, the transmission manufacturer, and finally we have a dozen of their approvals as well. Frankly speaking, it was very hard to get them.
What we're focusing on now. We want to increase WOLF recognition first of all. How do we do that? First of all, we became the official global partner of an event like the WRC Championship, signing a 3-year contract.
How do we stimulate sales? First of all, we hold technical and commercial days. We have technical specialists on our staff - technical engineers who we work with to conduct technical, salesperson and mechanic training and inform about trends in the market.
We often conduct joint so-called "field visits" together with distributors. Because it is interesting, we need the opinion of any of our partner sellers, their vision, what is missing and what is needed, how can we improve not only our products but also our approach to the market. We don't know that, unlike those specialists who work in the market.
We conduct joint promotions: sell-in is sales from us to our distributors and sell-out is their sales. That is, we have promotions that are held monthly for both end consumers and dealers.
We have only one factory, which is in Belgium. We produce only in that factory and we have the same quality for all the countries in the world. The products that are sold in Ukraine are the same as in France or Britain, for example.
I would also especially like to mention the mobile offer for finding the right oil, which we have on our website. It is new and can be downloaded for free and installed on any smartphone. It allows an advanced search by car brand. In some countries, you can even find the oil by vehicle registration plate number - this works in the BeNeLux market. Equivalent product searches are also possible: you have a certain oil of another brand and you can find our equivalent. Search by part number and specification: you can simply write the specification, e.g. 229.51 from Mercedes and see what we offer.
When we make a request to an automobile manufacturer for a new approval, first of all we give the oil to them for testing. We have approvals for all European cars, trucks and motorcycles produced in the last 8-10 years. That helps a lot with the promotion. We tell our customers that if we don't have a certain product, if you can't find an analogue - contact our technical department. You will receive an answer within 24 hours. We have a hotline - a telephone hotline. If you apply at the beginning of the day, by the end of the day you can already get an answer. It's very fast. You can write as you want: in English, in Ukrainian - you will get an answer in any case.
The company takes part in various world exhibitions: Equip Auto in France, Automechanika in Frankfurt.
At the 2018 Automechanika in Frankfurt, we presente the Smart Oil Cabin. It is an oil storage box with two 60-liter drums and eight 20-liter drums. The essence of it is that there are sensors in it which give information about how much oil is left in a barrel or in a canister. When there is less than 20% left, the owner of the cabin receives a signal on his smartphone and either he can order himself or the information is automatically sent to the supplier and the order comes right away. This is done so that the vendor does not lose sales, so that everything is very fast. This is a common global trend. And we are in it.
Smart Oil Cabin is in the process of patenting, and we will launch it when we get the official patent.
The Smart Oil Cabin concept was presented at the Automechanika in Frankfurt
In the near future, we will have a new Web site with more dynamic content that takes visitor preferences into account. For example, all current, even local, promotional campaigns will be reflected there.
So, briefly about the benefits of WOLF.
• Premium quality at an affordable price.
• An up-to-date and constantly updated product line. In 2019, we launched about 40 products: motor and transmission oils for cars and trucks. Most of them are intended for the primary market. The primary market is not just the first fill, it's the warranty vehicle. Because that's where we can make more money with higher level products.
• Manufacturer approvals are very important. Our system of approvals tells us that we give a warranty on our products because we get it from the equipment manufacturer.
• Testing. Our laboratory constantly monitors quality at all stages of production. And in order to meet the requirements of trucks, in Ukraine, for example, we implement quality control of used oil after a certain mileage (20, 40, 60 - as much as necessary), so that the vehicle owner knows in what condition the engine of the car is, how long this oil has left.
• Product quality. A striking example: we produce for GM, Opel, AVIA, Quicksilver.
• Certification. Once a year we undergo the certification of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. We produce in Belgium, in Europe, in only one factory. It's European quality that sets us apart.
• Massive advertising and promotional support.
• The number of products - we have over 500 of them. I'm not talking about SKUs - there are over 2,500.
• We are in the TecAlliance catalog (TecDOC).
And finally. I am often asked a tricky question: how to decide on the choice of brand, all other things being equal in appearance and having confidence in the manufacturing plants? I answer: compare the detailed specifications and look at the price.
Interviewed by Alexander Kelm
The Belgian company Wolf Oil Corporation NV was founded in 1955 in Hemiksem, near Antwerp. Why there? The transport connections are very good there and the logistics are easy to organize. It's also confirmed by the fact that there are several companies in the same area that produce oils.
We are engaged only in oil production. That's our main business. Wolf Oil Corporation NV is a privately held, family-owned company founded in 1955. It is one of the top five independent oil producers. I say "independent" because we are not connected to any oil extracting company.
Last year we produced and sold 120 million liters of oil with a factory capacity of 150 million per year.
We have good partnerships with OEMs (deliveries to automakers' conveyors) and OES (deliveries to car manufacturers' branded service stations). For some of them we produce so called original oils. For example, we produce for GM and Opel - both first fill and aftermarket.
We do tests on our products with the original equipment manufacturers and get the appropriate approvals.
We have 10 automated product production lines. Production is ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 14001:2015 certified, which also says that we care about the environment, which is very important.
A very important event for us is that in 1995 the first stage of automatic mixing was launched. We do somewhere around 7,500 product mixes a year. The next important year for us is 2012, when we focused on our brand. Up until that point, our brand was somewhere between 5-7% of our total product volume. After that period, when we did a complete rebranding (we changed not only the packaging and the label, but also the approaches in marketing), our brand WOLF already takes over 50% of the total volume, as of 2019, which is about 65-70 million liters per year.
At the current stage, we are very actively developing programs of work with service stations, including investment programs.
In our work with clients we focus on the right selection of products. Therefore, we have 11 product categories of the highest quality, which we offer together with our partner distributors, creating a perfect mix of products.
We are always one step ahead - we have products that have not even appeared on the secondary market yet (they are only on the primary market). For example, for hybrid cars and the latest generation cars. This makes it possible to enter authorized warranty service stations.
Of course, we also produce antifreezes, and auto chemistry, and lubricants, but we do not focus on them. If we do not have something - we will make it quickly.
Our brand is premium, but at a good price. One of our strategies is to enter the market very quickly. To do this, we choose the distributor very carefully and work in tandem with him. And of course, our 64 years of international distribution experience helps.
We already have more than 50 approvals of passenger car manufacturers (you get an approval only when the product is tested). For commercial vehicles we already have more than 120 approvals. There are a lot of approvals for gear oils. For example, we went a very long way with ZF, the transmission manufacturer, and finally we have a dozen of their approvals as well. Frankly speaking, it was very hard to get them.
What we're focusing on now. We want to increase WOLF recognition first of all. How do we do that? First of all, we became the official global partner of an event like the WRC Championship, signing a 3-year contract.
How do we stimulate sales? First of all, we hold technical and commercial days. We have technical specialists on our staff - technical engineers who we work with to conduct technical, salesperson and mechanic training and inform about trends in the market.
We often conduct joint so-called "field visits" together with distributors. Because it is interesting, we need the opinion of any of our partner sellers, their vision, what is missing and what is needed, how can we improve not only our products but also our approach to the market. We don't know that, unlike those specialists who work in the market.
We conduct joint promotions: sell-in is sales from us to our distributors and sell-out is their sales. That is, we have promotions that are held monthly for both end consumers and dealers.
We have only one factory, which is in Belgium. We produce only in that factory and we have the same quality for all the countries in the world. The products that are sold in Ukraine are the same as in France or Britain, for example.
I would also especially like to mention the mobile offer for finding the right oil, which we have on our website. It is new and can be downloaded for free and installed on any smartphone. It allows an advanced search by car brand. In some countries, you can even find the oil by vehicle registration plate number - this works in the BeNeLux market. Equivalent product searches are also possible: you have a certain oil of another brand and you can find our equivalent. Search by part number and specification: you can simply write the specification, e.g. 229.51 from Mercedes and see what we offer.
When we make a request to an automobile manufacturer for a new approval, first of all we give the oil to them for testing. We have approvals for all European cars, trucks and motorcycles produced in the last 8-10 years. That helps a lot with the promotion. We tell our customers that if we don't have a certain product, if you can't find an analogue - contact our technical department. You will receive an answer within 24 hours. We have a hotline - a telephone hotline. If you apply at the beginning of the day, by the end of the day you can already get an answer. It's very fast. You can write as you want: in English, in Ukrainian - you will get an answer in any case.
The company takes part in various world exhibitions: Equip Auto in France, Automechanika in Frankfurt.
At the 2018 Automechanika in Frankfurt, we presente the Smart Oil Cabin. It is an oil storage box with two 60-liter drums and eight 20-liter drums. The essence of it is that there are sensors in it which give information about how much oil is left in a barrel or in a canister. When there is less than 20% left, the owner of the cabin receives a signal on his smartphone and either he can order himself or the information is automatically sent to the supplier and the order comes right away. This is done so that the vendor does not lose sales, so that everything is very fast. This is a common global trend. And we are in it.
Smart Oil Cabin is in the process of patenting, and we will launch it when we get the official patent.
The Smart Oil Cabin concept was presented at the Automechanika in Frankfurt
In the near future, we will have a new Web site with more dynamic content that takes visitor preferences into account. For example, all current, even local, promotional campaigns will be reflected there.
So, briefly about the benefits of WOLF.
• Premium quality at an affordable price.
• An up-to-date and constantly updated product line. In 2019, we launched about 40 products: motor and transmission oils for cars and trucks. Most of them are intended for the primary market. The primary market is not just the first fill, it's the warranty vehicle. Because that's where we can make more money with higher level products.
• Manufacturer approvals are very important. Our system of approvals tells us that we give a warranty on our products because we get it from the equipment manufacturer.
• Testing. Our laboratory constantly monitors quality at all stages of production. And in order to meet the requirements of trucks, in Ukraine, for example, we implement quality control of used oil after a certain mileage (20, 40, 60 - as much as necessary), so that the vehicle owner knows in what condition the engine of the car is, how long this oil has left.
• Product quality. A striking example: we produce for GM, Opel, AVIA, Quicksilver.
• Certification. Once a year we undergo the certification of ISO 9001 and ISO 14001. We produce in Belgium, in Europe, in only one factory. It's European quality that sets us apart.
• Massive advertising and promotional support.
• The number of products - we have over 500 of them. I'm not talking about SKUs - there are over 2,500.
• We are in the TecAlliance catalog (TecDOC).
And finally. I am often asked a tricky question: how to decide on the choice of brand, all other things being equal in appearance and having confidence in the manufacturing plants? I answer: compare the detailed specifications and look at the price.
Interviewed by Alexander Kelm
