First things first. I would like to introduce Mike Skypala. Mike has taken over as Managing Director of OATS with immediate effect as I've stepped up to the Board of OATS' and HaynesPro's parent company - Haynes Publishing Group PLC.
I am certain the OATS team, its products and services are in very good hands. Mike brings more than 25 years of experience in data analytics, research and consulting and was a key member of the team at dunnhumby, who created their data insights platform to enable collaboration between retailers and consumer goods manufacturers through customer insight.
Now, with Mike on board, OATS can accelerate its work to deliver greater value to the industry through both market coverage and enhanced solutions. In particular, delivering deeper analytical capability to support broader lubricant and OEM business questions and challenges.
As always, my last View From The Bridge provides an opportunity to comment briefly on this Edition's highlights. Unsurprisingly, the oil majors and independent lube producers have benefitted from the increase in oil prices and leaner operations to announce strong results for Q3. In fact, BP posted its best Quarterly figures in more than five years.
However, competition within the lubes sector continues to grow. The latest news that Amazon has entered the market with 'own brand' engine oil has been greeted by mixed views from analysts. Meanwhile, many lubes producers are becoming impatient with further delays to the ILSAC GF-6 specification. Japanese manufacturers in particular are keen to move the process forward to allow them to put innovative products on the shelves under the new regulations.
With regards to OATS' own innovation, I know that high on Mike's agenda is meeting our current and prospective customers and partners over the coming months. This is an exciting opportunity to strengthen OATS' commitment to delivering quality, timely and insightful products along with consultancy, technical support and innovation. As always, you can contact us via e-mail or call us on +44 (0)1793 616138.
Peter van der Galiën and the OATS team.