Mixing

oil and water

ON a one-acre block on the outskirts of Apia, Tony Hill is proving oil and water can mix.

At the Vaitele industrial zone the Western Samoan businessman success fully runs a water purifying operation and an oil recycling plant.

No doubt someone has pulled his leg before about the oil and water mixture, as when the fact is mentioned he quickly winks and says, “the oil and water do not mix, they are separate”, and breaks into a wide grin.

Hill has a right to be happy as the bottled “Vaitele Spring Waters” has proved a success locally, and is being exported to American Samoa with good results. The recycled oil looks like having similar success, although as Hill points out, it will take time to show people the product is as good as others on the market.

Purifying water and recycling oil may seem a strange occupation for a person who qualified as a fitter and turner and has worked as a panel beater and spray painter.

But, after chatting with Hill for half an-hour you can’t really see the self described jack-of-all-trades being happy panel beating and painting for the rest of his life. However, with that said, it is a panel beating and spray paining oper ation he runs behind his water purifying plant that has helped finance much of his new ventures.

Hill began the water bottling two years ago and the oil recycling in September last year. He talks with enthusiasm and obvious pride about how it took nine months to build the oil recycling plant from scratch. This in cluded straightening out cyclone damaged water tanks for use in the plant.

One of his recycling tanks is made out of the front roller of a steam roller. Such ingenuity cut the estimated cost of the plant in half from WSSI million to

Wsssoo,Ooo.

There is also obvious pride as he shows you around his set-up. He enthusiasti cally points out various pieces of his oil recycling plant and gives a brief history of the piece. “This is the roller I was

talking about,” he says pointing to a yellow tank. “That is one of the water tanks we straigntened out.”

An added advantage Hill has, is he is able to carry out all plant maintenence himself.

Luck, fate, destiny, being in the right place at the right time, call it what you will, Hill has grabbed the opportunities with both hands and turned them into a success.

He really never had any intention of getting into the water business. He was in Samoa running a panel beating and spray painting business when a friend

suggested starting a water bottling set

up. After careful consideration he de cided to give it a go.

The operation started with 18-litre bottles, attached to a WSSI4OO cooler.

Hill soon found that the reception to these was luke-warm. “Because of the high cost involved in purchasing the

cooler, people were not really interested.

They figured it would be cheaper to buy a fridge,” Hill said.

“That’s when it struck me, our bottles were too big.”

The outcome was a trial order of small (individual size) bottles. This was despite Hill being told by an associate in New Zealand that he was wasting his time.

Armed with his new bottles, Hill set out for what is arguably Western Samoa’s leading hotel, Aggie Greys. “I knew if I could sell them to Aggies, I was made.”

He sold them to Aggie Greys and then went to another leading hotel, the Kitano Tusitala, to try his luck. The Tusitala said they would think about,

but before he had arrived back at his office they had placed an order. Vaitele Spring Waters had arrived.

The 1991 cyclones surprisingly worked in Hill’s favour as a shortage of fresh water saw a queues forming at the Vaitele factory. He had to air-freight in bottles to keep up with the demand.

Vaitele Spring Waters has established itself firmly in the Western Samoan market. However, its success has brought about competition. There is already a local competitor and another company is looking at the possibility of setting up. To counter the competition Hill is looking at new export markets, including the United States.

The oil business began in a similar fashion to the water purifying. The suggestion to begin oil recycling was floated. Hill liked the idea and took the plunge. He built the plant, modifying a suggested plan.

His wife Monette became the lab technician, and can now produce oil to given specifications. The plant now produces a wide range of lubricants including motor oil, gear oils, automatic transmission fluid, hydraulic oils, chain bar lube and 2 stroke oil under the name Aegis Oil.

Basically what the plant does is take waste oil, normally thrown away, puts it through the recycling process and turns out ready-to-use lubricants.

These are being marketed along similar lines as Vaitele Water in small take-away bottles. The com pany is now looking at the possibility of shipping waste oil from around the region to Apia, to enable the plant to expand production and consider serious exporting.

They are also looking at the possibility of setting up in another Pacific country, although at the moment it is just a thought.

All Hill’s business is based on his one acre, but one can’t help but feel this may soon grow too small for him.D

Martin Tiffany

Hill: Jack of all trades

Martin Tiffany

So cool: Vaitele spring water