The desire for more aggressive growth within one of its businesses and the ability to open up joint venture opportunities to make that happen made DFK Oswin Griffiths Carlton a perfect fit for The Petrochem Group.
The New Zealand business has a varied portfolio of businesses, including 17 Caltex service stations, a motel, small retail stores, a number of landlord entities and commercial properties.
Petrochem Group CEO, Dipak Bagia says, “operating various businesses in different locations requires a particular skill set, and together with DFK assistance we have been able to specialise and excel in the various ventures.”
Bringing together like-minded people
In 2004 Petrochem Group moved from a big accounting firm to DFK OGC due to the personal relationships built by Dipak and DFK OGC’s directors Anit Patel, Mukesh Parshottam and Navin Patel.
However, Dipak said the business relationship really started thanks to the introduction of like-minded people within the industry.
“We were wanting to aggressively grow our landlord entities and part of our discussions with Mukesh at the time were: how can we build this? He suggested some joint ventures with like-minded clients of their firm.”
“That’s how the relationship started and it’s been very good ever since. At that stage, once that relationship was formed, we decided to move all our accounting services over to them.”
A breadth of knowledge
Dipak appreciates DFK OGC’s approach of having the partners work closely with his group in all major aspects of the business.
“Managing cash flow, human resources issues, working capital and creating financial resources for future investments is always a challenge, and we require expert assistance to achieve this goal – DFK OGC has been able to provide that for us.”
Different partners in the firm guide Dipak within their speciality areas, from overall compliance reporting, accounting functions and business growth for each of the businesses within the portfolio.
“The big plus has been that we’ve been exposed to three or four of their partners.”
“It’s unlike at other firms where you may just deal with one partner.”
“With the nature of our business, it’s great to have multiple partners’ input for the knowledge, ideas and expertise.”
Evident results
Dipak said the results of working with DFK OGC were evident.
“We’ve grown our business quite significantly in terms of the number of sites we have, but also the investments in real estate and in what we call our joint venture partners with retail. That’s grown quite significantly.”
He said they had found DFK OGC’s approach to everything from services provided to how they build relationships one that had worked well for them.
“They are down to earth, approachable, and one of the main qualities – always available, including after hours for advice.”
“The team is stable and you get to deal with a team who you get to know well.”
Let DFK OGC help your business today
DFK OGC is an Auckland chartered accounting firm that offers a full range of accounting, audit and business services to a range of local and international businesses.
Get in touch with us today and let us help you and your business today.
