| 39 ECL Group ([SORUH )OHHW3DUWQHUVȐ %XVLQHVV /HDVH &DOFXODWRU ŶũƙòƜĠ͗ǐĠŃʼnđŠĠƤ͗òūĘ͗ŠĠòƤĠ͗đŶƤưƤ͗ŶūŠʼnūĠ͗ūŶǑ͗ ŶũƙòƜĠ͗ǐĠŃʼnđŠĠƤ͗òūĘ͗ŠĠòƤĠ͗đŶƤưƤ͗ŶūŠʼnūĠ͗òư͗͗ ĺŠĠĠưƙòƜưūĠƜƤ͝đŶ͝ūǢ͗͗ “When you pay at the pump that’s the technology side of the business.” T T Virginia Wright Keeping New Zealand moving ECL Group has service teams in 19 locations countrywide from Invercargill to Kaitaia with 120 fuel technicians offering 24/7 service. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ECL Group is now a leading technical services company specialising in fuel systems, payment systems, technology and eMobility solutions. Eight years ago, Counties Energy bought the name ECL Group along with two of the four businesses running under that umbrella: fuel and technology/electronics. The fuel arm dates back to a core fuel infrastructure company called Fuelquip that was started in 1957 then bought by ECL Group in 1997. Counties Energy recognised the synergy between fuel services and the technology that would allow them to upgrade the customers’ experience at self-service stations around the country. “When you pay at the pump that’s the technology side of the business,” says Steve Collett who is General Manager of Energy Solutions for ECL Group. The technology arm that makes self-service payments possible also provides Eftpos solutions, from the pinpad to the software that drives them, for other major clients such as Foodstuffs, a number of restaurant brands and NZ Post. Steve’s been with ECL Group for 15 years and has been part of the rise in contactless payment and its increasing efficiency, which means his arm of the business now offers a contemporary end-to-end solution for service stations around the country. “We do the authorisation of pumps at service stations and all the electronic back end along with the terminals and pinpads,” he says. “We’re also responsible for projects. If you give us a strip of grass, we can build a service station from tanks right through to being operational, so everything you need from storing and dispensing fuel to taking payments, we can do.” They’ll design your industry project, install self-service pumps with payment options and of course install the EV charger or carwash that’s become part of the service station landscape. Fuel remains ECL Group’s core business and the rise of the EV market means that it now includes the design and installation of EV equipment in the commercial space, an area which is only likely to grow. “We install the EV chargers for commercial spaces such as for Z Energy and BP and we do EV installations for larger infrastructure such as bus depots or the one we recently installed for Z Energy at WestCity Shopping Centre in Waitākere which is their first destination, public EV charging hub in Auckland,” says Steve. ECL Group has service teams in 19 locations countrywide from Invercargill to Kaitaia with 120 fuel technicians offering 24/7 service. If someone crashes into a fuel pump at 3 o’clock in the morning, it’s likely to be an ECL technician who sorts it out. Their tagline is “We keep New Zealand moving” and they’re proud of their pivotal role in natural disasters such as when extreme weather events cut off whole communities. It’s ECL Group choppering in the fuel technicians to keep critical infrastructure and emergency services operating when there’s a natural disaster and it’s also ECL Group who get the faulty eftpos machine at the supermarket working again. As New Zealand’s fuel industry changes, and people’s mode of transport and how they pay for it changes with it, it’s ECL Group who will be working to ensure they can support those changes and make it easy for New Zealanders to get around and do what they have to do.
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