Spin-Off to Success

Chris Haire
President & CEO,
TOTAL Lubricants USA Southwest
www.finalube.com

A common story among many spin-offs has been their failure to survive on their own and meet their initial objectives. Lubricants USA, however, stands as one notable exception. For the past eight years, this leaner, more productive group of men and women has experienced organic growth that would be the envy of any CEO. This private, closely held company, headed by Chris Haire, President and CEO, has a culture founded on a remarkable work ethic and is an outstanding story of business success.

Headquartered in Plano, a suburb of Dallas, Texas, Lubricants USA is a turnkey operation. The firm provides a range of services that include sourcing raw materials from across the globe, transporting raw materials to multiple blending facilities, formulating and blending finished lubricant products, and warehousing and delivering those products to several hundred distributors of Fina-branded lubricants via the Lubricants USA proprietary fleet.

In 2000, Chris was managing Fina Inc.'s downstream marketing operations when Fina was acquired by Total S.A., an international oil and gas firm headquartered in Paris, France. Sensing an opportunity, Chris tendered a management buyout offer for Fina Lubricants, the smallest of the seven business lines reporting to him at the time. Total S.A. accepted Chris' buyout offer and a new company was born, Lubricants USA. Virtually overnight, Chris' employee count dropped from several hundred to fewer than thirty.

After more than eight years of solid growth, Chris credits the company's success to his employees, labeling them "self-starters" and "can do-ers". He says, "It's all about our people. We go to great lengths to find and retain the right people. In my experience, when you surround yourself with quality people, you can indeed move mountains."

A veteran of employment with two major oil and gas companies, Chris says Lubricants USA doesn't spend a great deal of time on many of the internal management processes common to large corporations, such as detailed budgeting and employee performance reviews. "Our success in large measure depends upon being more nimble than our competitors. We accomplish this by making sure that each team member pulls his own weight, is well-versed both financially and operationally, and works toward a common set of goals. With this approach, and the fact we are at all times acutely aware of the company's performance figures, we feel we don't need frequent business planning and budget reviews."

When Lubricants USA was spun off, the employees worked hard to retain the company's existing distributors, even managing to regain one distributor who had been lost prior to the spin-off. Despite severe industry turbulence caused by escalating prices - 22 industry-wide increases in finished lubricant product prices since late 1999 - Lubricants USA continues to gain market share, much of it captured from much larger industry players.

How does Lubricants USA successfully compete with industry giants? According to Chris, by being "Reliable, Flexible, and Responsive." This mantra is not simply Lubricants USA's motto, it is central to the company's culture, resonating throughout everything they do. "Every employee understands that our collective livelihood depends upon the willingness of every employee to go the extra mile," Chris says. "While we manufacture products of the highest quality, it's our customer service that differentiates us from the competition." In spite of multi-million dollar advertising campaigns by larger lubricant manufacturers, Lubricants USA survives and thrives because of the customer relationships it builds.

As a mark of Chris' and his employees' successes, Lubricants USA was acquired by Total Lubricants North America, at year-end 2008 taking the company full circle. Chris was named President and CEO of the new entity, Total Lubricants USA Southwest. Chris says, "We're extremely flattered that Total chose our company to re-enter the US lubricants market. There were many lubricant firms from which to select. Their choice again evidences the quality of our employee team. As Total Lubricants USA Southwest, we won't change anything about our culture or business practices, the things that have made us so successful. We are excited about this new venture and we're prepared to contribute to Total's success nationwide."