The Fuel Industry Comes Together

The Asia Pacific Fuel Industry Forum 2025 was held at The Star on the Gold Coast last week. Delegates at the three-day event enjoyed presentations from a range of authoritative speakers as well as social and networking events. With a focus on delivering practical insights and future-facing strategies, APFIF25 was themed “Success through Synergy”—a deliberate recognition to the growing interdependence between the fuel industry and the sectors it serves, including transport, agriculture, resources, and retail.

As the annual ACAPMA conference, APFIF is where the fuel industry comes together to learn, network and celebrate.

APFIF25 was designed to provide the leaders of our industry with a knowledge dividend. Designed by the industry for the industry, it connected key industry leaders and pioneers in fuel wholesale, transport and mobility and convenience retailing with engaging dialogue sessions and presentations from industry, economic, political and technical leaders including;

Saul Eslake – Economic Commentator
David Goldberger – Founder and Managing Director, SOLO Petroleum
Andrew McKellar – CEO, ACCI
Fiona Hayes – CEO, 7 Eleven
Tim Rankin – General Manager, Chevron Australia Downstream
Wei Chi Wong – VP Fuel Supply & Wholesale, bp Australia & New Zealand
Stephen Scheeler – CEO, Omniscient
Mathew Munro – CEO, Australian Trucking Association
Dr Nicholas Linacre – Minerals Council of Australia
Troy Williams – CEO, National Farmers Federation
Nathan Rath & Jack Piggott – CT Group
Mark Wiseman – Equities Analyst, Macquarie Group
Ben Thorpe – President, Glory Global Asia Pacific
Nathan Dunlop – Product and GTM, Gilbarco Veeder-Root
Christian Hewitt – Director, EV-NRG
Paul Reber – President, iCon
Natalie Cook OAM OLY – Olympian
EPA, Dangerous Goods and Safe Work Regulators – from across the country in one place

In addition to the packed conferencing program the Exhibition Hall provided a place for the delegates to catch up with partners and clients. This serious networking was powered by a constant supply of coffee from the team at Roasting Warehouse .

There was also time for delegates to relax and network.

On the Tuesday delegates mingled at the BBQ Dinner, presented by UCB Stores (United Convenience Buyers) Australia, at the stunning Isoletto Prive at The Star.

On the Wednesday evening, after a full day of conferencing delegates kept the work going into the night at the Cocktail Function in the Exhibition Hall, presented by innomatics. The competition at the F1 Simulator got serious fast, with Jack Feher taking the honours.

The event concluded with the presentation of the Australian Fuel & Convenience Awards. The Awards are designed to recognise P&C businesses (Retailers and Suppliers) and fuel supply businesses (Distributors and Wholesalers) that are making tangible contributions to the quality and future viability of the fuel and convenience industry in Australia.

A total of 5 Awards were presented to national winners across 5 different categories to businesses judged to be delivering operational excellence in 4 key areas, namely:

Compliance excellence: Demonstrating a wholesale commitment to wage, public safety and environmental protection via active compliance practices.
Creating safe and healthy workplaces: Implementing actions that are specifically focussed on maintaining the safety, well-being and career development of the people that work within the business.
Championing innovation: Demonstrating leadership in business innovation in a way that delivers tangible benefits for customers and staff.
Delivering sustainable outcomes: Taking action to improve the environmental performance of their business (and the wider industry) in an economically sustainable manner.

The final Award was the Marg Taylor Memorial Award. Named in honour of former APADA/ACAPMA Employee Marg Taylor for her lifelong contribution to the Australian Fuel Industry, this national award seeks to recognise businesses that are demonstrating exceptional leadership and support at a community level.

“The Awards were designed to recognize the best of the best in a national industry that generated over $101B in revenue, collected nearly $16B in federal tax revenues, and employed more than 61000 Australians in the last financial year”, explained ACAPMA CEO Rowan Lee.

All entrants completed a nomination form addressing the national selection criteria. A group of finalists were then shortlisted for each category by a working group. The selected finalists were then interviewed as part of a validation process used to compile an evidence base for final judging.

This process included the preparation of a short expose of each business in the September 2025 Edition of Convenience World Magazine (See: https://emagazines.retailmedia.com.au/cw-september-2025/full-view.html)

“In the end, the judges deliberated on a portfolio comprising over 300 pages of information to identify prize winners for each Award Category”, Rowan said.

“The ACAPMA Board was at pains to ensure that the Awards were meaningful and credible by insisting on the adoption of an assessment process that maximized transparency and was judged by a group of experts who were wholly independent of the Australian Fuel Industry”, added Rowan.

Accordingly, the National Judging Panel comprised leaders of other national industry bodies with extensive understanding of retail and logistics operations. The judges were as follows:

Bruce Billson, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman
Richard Forbes, CEO, Independent Food Distributors Australia
Amy Harvey, CEO, Retail Media Group
Paul Walsh, CEO, Industry Skills Australia
Kerri Wane, CEO, Schnitz

And the winners were….

2025 Retailer of the Year: 7 Eleven

2025 Supplier of the Year (Equipment & services): iOR
2025 Fuel Supplier >150ML: iOR

2025 Supplier of the Year (Shop): WEX

2025 Fuel Distributor of the Year <150ML : ReFuel

With the operational excellence awards done, it was time to announce the winner of the Marg Taylor Award for Community Spirit, the perpetual award has been dedicated to the memory of Marg Taylor in recognition of her lifelong contribution to the Australian fuel industry.

“The judges indicated that the identification of a sole winner of this award was made difficult by the fact that they believed each of the finalists were truly deserving of the Award in their own right. The judges were inspired by the phenomenal contribution that each business had made to the communities in which they operated in recent times”, said Rowan.

2025 Marg Taylor Award for Community Spirit: Lowes Petroleum

The Award was accepted by Sharon White who gave a heartfelt acceptance speech that stunned and completely silenced the audience as she recounted the experience of Lowes Petroleum and the impact of the programs on the local and broader communities.

The APFIF25 is a wrap. In 2026 the annual ACAPMA Conference will be celebrating 50 Years of ACAPMA in Melbourne, 7-9 September 2026, we hope to see you there!