Combining a Local Presence with World Class, Global Major
With over 13 years’ experience within TotalEnergies including a long track record in the shipping sector, Laurence Garcia is enjoying her new role as Indirect Sales Business Developer at Lubmarine.
Here she offers insights on her role and the expertise across the Lubmarine business that enables her to support local businesses with a global network of products and services.
You have been at TotalEnergies since 2009 - what are some of the roles you held before arriving at Lubmarine?
Having joined TotalEnergies with an international business degree, I have enjoyed different roles within the business, my first as a bunker trader in TotalEnergies Marine Fuels – working with the biggest shipping operators to develop sales in the Mediterranean area, and later within African ports.
Both experiences were rich in terms of the diverse nature of the markets and the varied challenges they offered.
After this, I moved to the purchasing team of TotalEnergies – within the international transport sector including freight forwarding, shipping and air-freight sectors. I was working with all the affiliates across the Marketing and Services branch of TotalEnergies. A very wide and interesting scope which enabled me to learn a lot about the affiliates and their different requirements.
Working with people in many different countries has always been and remains an amazing experience. It is an important part of the job to understand people, their organization, their needs and to work to meet those requirements.
All of these experiences have really helped me in my new position as Indirect Sales Business Developer which I started in July last year.
What are some of the key responsibilities of your new role?
It is vitally important to be close to our customers, to listen to them and understand how we can help. I believe it is one of our competitive advantages to be able to listen to their needs and be highly reliable, consistent and available for our customers.
Having worked in sales and purchasing it helps me to understand the importance of this customer focus.
Lubmarine is a family with a passion for performance and service that runs in the blood. I am really happy to be part of this family. All the Lubmarine teams are sharing the same passion.
It fits in really well with my own approach to working.
Can you tell us a little more about your role?
My role within Lubmarine is to be in touch with all the offices, affiliates and partners to help support and develop the local sales within each local region and territory.
I work with the commercial teams within Lubmarine right across our global network, on two main segments that are Power Generation and Local Marine including off-shore supply vessels, tug boats, yacht, and passenger vessels within local waters.
In terms of the market divide, power generation represents 30%, mainly across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Islands.
On the other side, we estimate the local marine segments to represent 70% of our focus in this market around the world.
We have a strong position in the land-based power plant markets in the Islands and in Africa – not just coastal, but also inland.
In terms of product, we offer the Aurelia and Disola ranges for both Diesel and Dual Fuel engines, as well as Aurelia LNG which is the product ideally suited for the power generation sector switching to LNG or opting for Dual Fuel solutions.
What are the advantages that you feel Lubmarine can bring to its customers in both the marine and power generation sectors?
First our products are high quality and high performance in both sectors combined with a very strong global supply chain and a local presence.
In addition to the quality of our products to these sectors, we also highlight the strength of our Marine Lubricant Engineers (MLE’s) and the quality of our technical services that can support our customers’ operations, which is a real point of difference in the market.
Covering more than 100 countries, with 55 blending plants around the world, our clients can benefit not only from our expertise and passion but also from our global footprint that has the ability to deliver and support on a local level, whilst safety remains the cornerstone of our operational excellence.
This aspect of our business is increasingly important and we are focused on communicating how our strengths can make a real impact for our customers.
New digital services adding an extra dimension to customer support
It has been great to be able to launch our new digital services to our customers. This is a very unique solution on the market that generates value to the customers by saving time, gives them reliable data at their fingertips, which in the end enables them to make better lubrication management decisions.
Being able to bring new solutions and new benefits to our customers in the local markets thanks to our global shipping presence enables us to remain innovative and at the forefront of our sector, which is fully in line with our customer-first approach.
And with our new products, such as Talusia HD 40 and the new to come Aurelia FE lubricant, due to be launched later this year, it’s an exciting time, where we can demonstrate even greater deliverable benefits to our customers.
Strength in positive affiliate relationships
Where we are not working directly in a local market we have great relationships with our affiliates, working closely together in partnership to support them and their customers.
Our affiliates are there to work within their local markets and work closely in turn with us.
Their clients can take advantage of having the strengths of an energy major with the local market knowledge, understanding and supply chain.
What do you love about your role?
There is a real family spirit here at Lubmarine, combined with high technical expertise – this was really apparent to me from day one. We have all aspects of the global shipping and power generation industry covered. It is a challenging business where anticipation is key.
Our supply chain is also a major plus that has demonstrated good resilience these past years.
This offers additional security, peace of mind and high satisfaction levels for our own direct customers, our affiliates and their customers in turn.
Away from work
When I am not working I like to spend family time with my two children: my daughter, who is 7 years old, and my son who is 4 years old.
I also like to keep some time for my daily yoga practice and I do some Pilates and Stand Up Paddleboarding (SUP) during the sunny season of course, in lakes not far from Paris.