A group of long-time friends with similar interests banded together and discussed an alliance to pursue an opportunity they deemed hard to pass up. It was in their vision to expand horizons and look beyond, after spending years growing their respective core businesses. They had many similarities: a wealth of experience, brand passion, customer centricity, love for people and machinery, and a knack for sharing acquired knowledge to benefit others.
One group, Kupler, has been operating a Mobil-brand distribution business in Mindanao, Philippines since 1993 and the other group, McLarens, is doing the same in Sri Lanka since 1984. Throughout those years, both companies were accorded ExxonMobil’s prestigious Circle of Excellence Award multiple times, an award accorded by ExxonMobil to their distributors around the globe recognizing them for business excellence.
Mobil is a brand of lubricants and lubrication services developed by industry-pioneer ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest publicly traded international oil and gas companies. The brand is renowned globally for its technology leadership in the energy and petrochemical business, and for its high-performance products that help businesses increase productivity through efficient equipment operations and longer uptimes.
In 2019, ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. of Singapore, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil Corporation, decided to change its Mobil-business operations in the Philippines from a multi-distributorship, market-centric set-up, to a single-distributorship model, and issued a call for tenders. This was the opportunity that prompted the group to ally and present a strong bid for the new business, leveraging on the synergies they have. They called the joint venture McKupler Inc. in obvious reference to the names of the two companies they were representing. And they were successful in their bid.
Confronted with the onset of a global pandemic crisis, it was not an auspicious start for the young company. Registration was delayed. Setting-up was difficult. Economic displacements and disruptions in supply chain impacted operations. Yet the company persevered, relying on its grit, resilience, and determination. Confident of making huge progress amidst an improving business environment, McKupler Inc. is now making headway in the B2B, B2C and international marine markets in the country. The McKupler story begins.
