Study on sales channel of Total S.A in sub-Sahara Africa
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1.1 Introduction and Background Total S.A is a French multinational oil and gas company whose headquarters is in Tour Total, Courbevoie near Paris in France. Total S.A was one of the major six world oil companies when the French prime minister rejected the idea of a partnership with Royal Dutch Shell. He instead favored the idea of forming an independent French oil company because petroleum was considered as a very important in the case of new war with German (Total.com, 2015). It was formed in 1924 after World War I and was initially called French Petroleum Company (CPF). Initially, this company was a taken as a private sector company (Total.com, 2015). In the 1930s, Total S.A engaged in the oil exploration and production mainly in Middle East countries and after World War II, it diversified its exploration to Canada, Venezuela, and Africa as it pursued energy sources in France. In 1980, Total Petroleum North American wing controlled about 50% CPF it bought the refining and marketing assets of Vickers Petroleum. This action enabled it to have the capacity of transportation and networking over 350 service stations in 20 states. Between the years 1985 -2003, Total CPF rebranded itself to boost the popularity of its gasoline brand. The name of this company changed to “Total” when it became a public company as it was listed on New York Stock Exchange. In the early 1990s, the foreign ownership stakes in this company increased from 23% in 1990 o 44% in 1994 (Total.com, 2015). Total has continued to expand its retail presence in various parts of the world using several brand names. In 1999, it took over Petrofina Company of Belgium, and it was known as Total Fina. Total S.A also acquired Elf Aquitaine and was known as TotalFinaElf in 2000. However, it was renamed back to Total