At the end of the 19th century, people in Asia used petroleum mainly for illumination purposes. Sensing a lucrative business, Diethelm started marketing lighting oil in Singapore in partnership with the Royal Dutch Company.

In 1898, disaster struck for Royal Dutch when their most important source of oil unexpectedly ran dry. Royal Dutch needed an enormous cash injection to explore for other oil fields. The company turned to Diethelm for the financial investment in return for an attractive partnership agreement.

It was a tough decision: if Diethelm agreed to the request, the investment would cause a cash drain, if rejected, his company stood to lose an important contract. Following his entrepreneurial instinct, Diethelm signed the deal.

After 15 successful years, the contract ended. One hundred years later, in 2009, the petroleum venture came full circle, when Shell outsourced the entire sales and distribution platform for their lubricants business to us in Thailand.

It all goes to show: by working on eye-to-eye level with clients and customers as their strategic partner, we drive their business and ours.