* Le Croissant, a specialist pastry, confectionary and bakery brand, is a division of Heritage Hotel
* A legacy Malawi hotel which opened its doors in 1958 as Shire Highlands
By Duncan Mlanjira
Puma Energy Malawi — in its demonstration of its continued commitment to providing convenience, product diversity, reliability and quality of service to customers, launched the first Le Croissant store at its service station at Chichiri Shopping Mall in Blantyre.
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This follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Le Croissant — a proudly Malawian brand — earlier this year to open three Le Croissant café outlets at Puma Energy Malawi service stations.
Puma Energy says it plans to further expand this partnership to its stations in Lilongwe in the Central Region and Mzuzu in the North.
“Our partnership reflects Puma Energy Malawi’s confidence in the Le Croissant brand, our commitment to supporting local businesses and collaboration in the private sector to create jobs and sustain livelihoods,” said Sipho Uaeca, Puma Energy Malawi General Manager.
Le Croissant, a specialist pastry, confectionary and bakery brand, is a division of Heritage Hotel, a legacy Malawi hotel which opened its doors in 1958 as Shire Highlands.
Now under the Serendib Hotels & Resorts brand, together they employ over 800 people through Kambiri Beach Resort & Blue Waters Beach Resort in Salima; Lotus Hotel (Blantyre); Bamboo Boutique Hotel (Lilongwe); Serendib Suites (in Namiwawa); Heritage Hotel in Limbe (formerly Shire Highlands Hotel); and Zaburi Beach Resort in Mangochi.
Le Croissant which serves over 1,200 customers per day with over 20 products that are unique to Le Croissant, is a proud investor in and employer of young culinary talent, both men and women.
The company has recently also commenced a management trainee programme for hospitality graduates who will receive comprehensive training in Food & Beverage with the first cohort of 15 expected to start work in June 2024.
Ranjan Perera, chairman of Serendib Hotels & Resorts said: “Our Le Croissant is a local brand. This first venture into the ‘on the go’ café business is an extension of our long-term investment into the Malawian economy and the people of our country.
“We are proud to partner with Puma Energy Malawi as we extend our brand across the country and this partnership marks another milestone in delivering quality services to Puma customers and opens a new gateway to hospitality.”
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In his closing remarks at the launch ceremony, Sipho Uaeca emphasised: “Our partnership with Le Croissant continues the evolving Puma Energy Malawi story.
“It adds to our diversifying service offerings that embrace alternative energy sources like solar, our commitment to upholding the highest HSSE standards and to promoting the safe transportation of fuel, our commitment to enabling access to clean cooking fuel for communities and to working with the government and partners to ensure fuel security for the country.
“From now on, customers pulling up at the Chichiri service station to refuel will experience the combination of the much loved Le Croissant brand and the excellent service that Puma Energy Malawi is known for as they take a break, rest, refresh and are ‘energised’ before going on their way.
Last month, Puma Energy Malawi also partnered Elly B’s in opening a diner in Puma Shop Express at Kabula service station — fondly called Kandodo Corner in Blantyre.
Elly B’s African Diner is a subsidiary of Blue Elephant Investments Limited that includes Casa Mia and Blue Elephant Bar & Grill that offers a wide range of fast tasty foods — now expands its brand to Elly B’s Express to cater for customers looking for ‘on the go’ services.
Blue Elephant Investments has over 20 years of experience in the local market of offering entertainment services that first emerged as a hot spot trending as ‘Blues’.
Puma Energy is a leading global energy business, safely providing energy in over 30 countries in 6 continents.
Its downstream business segments include fuels, aviation, lubricants, LPG and bitumen and has 1,998 retail sites (700 in Africa), a network of bitumen terminals and its present at 108 airports.
Its purpose is energising communities to help drive growth and prosperity by sustainably serving our customers’ needs in high potential countries around the world.
Puma Energy Malawi has a retail network of 82 service stations, with 47 convenience stores country wide, serves 2 airports, operates 4 terminals and has over 18,400,000 m3 of storage capacity in the country.
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