Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday (December 3) gave away the KSE Top-25 Companies Awards for the year 2002 and 2003 to Pakistan State Oil (PSO), the blue chip oil marketing company. PSO Managing Director Tariq Kirmani received the award in a colourful ceremony. Eight companies during the last 25 years have received top companies award for more than a dozen times, which also include PSO. The company has received award for 19 times after fulfilling the set criteria of KSE for the year 2002-03.
The prestigious awards were in recognition of the success of PSO, reflected in the record earnings made by the company year after year. During the last financial year, PSO earned a remarkable all-time high profit after tax of Rs 4.2 billion, which was up by 4.5 percent from preceding year.
Maintaining the same trend in the first quarter FY-O5, PSO earned profit before tax of Rs 1.9 billion and profit after tax of Rs 1.2 billion. These figures were higher by 27 percent and 21 percent, respectively, as compared to the corresponding period of last year.
PSO has been honoured as the first Pakistani corporate entity to be studied as a case of exemplary corporate transformation by Wharton Business School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA. Prestigious Pakistani business institutions like Lums and IBA, have also taken up case studies on PSO''s transformation.
During the past five years, the company has undergone tremendous changes. The present management has taken a variety of new initiatives which have helped the company regain its leadership position.
At the core of this endeavour is the ''New Vision'' Retail Development programme which brought about the development of elegantly designed outlets at strategic locations throughout the country.
Equipped with most modern facilities like electronic dispensing units, convenience stores, business centres and, most of all, a more customer-friendly staff, these outlets have gone a long way in maintaining the customer confidence in PSO.
In addition to this, various new products and services, like Fleet and Corporate Cards, CNG stations, PSO CNG Oil, Mobile Quick Oil Change and Mobile Quality Testing Units, and the latest additions of environment-friendly Green XL Plus Diesel and Premier XL motor gasoline, have improved the image and profitability of the company substantially.