If you want to Revive your LPG plant, whether it’s abandoned, refurbished, unprofitable, reacquired or poorly managed, I will show you how best to revamp it and make it very successful again.
Reviving existing LPG plant cannot be a one size fits all plan. You have to treat each plant based on the nature of its current state and what you want to achieve. But one thing can be constant here, if you follow the right process you will get the best result in no time.
However, having a professional LPG consultant to work with would help along the way. It can be cheaper to just seek advise of a consultant and pay him for advising – while you do it yourself. That’s if you cannot afford to pay a consultant for a full service.
But if you can afford it, using a consultant to do the planning, implementation and restarting of the plant might just be the best strategy – especially if the plant is a large one.
Whatever you choose to do is fine as long as you get the desired results. So, let’s get started on the guidelines.
✅ Why Do You Want To Revive Your LPG Plant?
To start solving the problem, you have to first identify the problem. I mentioned some reasons you might want to Revive your LPG plant. It’s important you identify which one your plant falls into. Here’s the list again:
🔹️Abandoned LPG Plant
🔹️Unprofitable LPG Plant
🔹️Poorly Managed LPG Plant
🔹️Reacquired LPG Plant
🔹️Refurbished LPG Plant
These five reasons are common for those reviving their LPG plant. Each of the reasons may require different approach to Revive it. The reason for reviving the plant will determine your approach to revamping it.
What if you have more than one reason in the list here that applies to your plant? Let’s see how this reasons play out and what are your possible solutions.
✅ Reviving Abandoned LPG Plant
Before you start reviving an abandoned LPG plant, understanding why it was abandoned would help a lot. There are several reasons anyone could have abandoned a business.
Moreover, no one abandons a successful business unless it’s in a dispute situation. Any other reason is worth investigating. Well, assuming you were not the one that abandoned it.
What to do in this case to Revive your LPG plant that’s abandoned it to take a look at the level of decay in the facility and start with cleaning out the debris to reveal what beauty is till remaining of it. It’s at this point you can take stock of what’s in working condition and what needs to be fixed or replaced entirely.
Fixing up the plant is basically what’s needed first before any other considered problems fixable. But you should be aware of all the problems before attempting any fixes at all. You may also need to update its trading licensing with DPR.
✅ Reviving Unprofitable LPG Plant
A plant that’s unprofitable is a very delicate one to Revive. You don’t just treat it like an abandoned plant. Before you think of fixing it up, the most ideal thing to do is explore what make its unprofitable in the first place.
Things like:
🔹️How many KG of gas does it sell daily, weekly, monthly or yearly should be reviewed. If sales are low is a tale sign that more work needs to be done.
🔹️Review its location as well to ensure its targeting the right audience. Location do have a lot to do with LPG plant profit potential.
🔹️It can also be Management issue. And Management can comprise of several component both visible and invisible (LOL). Who manages the plant is as important as well.
🔹️Finally, supply could also be a reason its unprofitable. A bad supply schedule can affect a plant. If it constantly doesn’t have supply, it discourages customers and soon enough they start going to the competitor to buy.
If the issue is just with location, you can easily decide on a new one. Although the cost may be huge moving a plant to a new location. It’s like starting out completely new. Any other issue identified can simply be addressed with appropriate solution.
✅ Reviving Poorly Managed LPG Plant
Its sometimes difficult to classify a plant problem as being poorly managed, especially if the owner is the manager. Sadly, that’s the number one reason most plants are not profitable.
It starts from setup stage. The setup was poorly done. They were inexperienced but they never sort professional guidance mostly because they taught the consultant was asking for too much.
If you consider how much and years lost, you would have paid the little fee the consultant asked from you. However, the best solution for poorly managed plant is to identify the immediate management error before preferring any solution.
It could also involve changing the management. Surprisingly, most plants are being run by inexperienced people. Hire a professional or get a consultant to be a behind the scene manager. The fee is not much and it can be monthly or on retainer-ship.
✅ Reviving Reacquired LPG Plant
This one is not easy as well. Unless the plant is at optimal profit level – which is usually not the case, because no one would sell a very profitable business unless the offer was irresistible.
So, when you acquire an LPG plant, whatever condition you may think it’s the current state, always do some assessments. Review it’s market potential and opportunities. Examine its turnover, Cashflow and supply rate.
Check what the former owners were doing and review what more can be done to improve the profit status. If possible interview the former own and learn of their challenges and what they felt they could have done differently.
✅ Reviving Refurbished LPG Plant
I like this one the most because it’s less challenging. Any plant can do this at different time of their lifespan. It’s always good to have a refurbishing plan – like every year or after every two years.
You need to keep the plant shining and looking attractive. It doesn’t necessary have to be only old and abandoned plant that require refurbishing. If the plant paint starts looking dirty and you start noticing facility decay, it’s time to think of refurbishing.
Don’t forget that people like new things. Customers are attracted to new and good things. Any little improvement will excite your customers and probably bring back old customers.
✅ Conclusion
Don’t watch the investment go down without a fight to Revive your LPG plant. But don’t go about it the wrong way. It’s better to use the services of a consultant to achieve a better result than making the same mistakes doing it yourself.
However, if you had past experience about running an LPG plant and you think you know what you should fix that’s okay too.
My advise to do it yourself is to apply what works for you. Understand the problem first before attempting any fixes. Moreover, doing it yourself doesn’t mean you don’t need a consultant as adviser. Always be willing to pay someone who understands better to help you.
