Quick and Efficient Gas Business Plan — Key Performance Indicators

The fills, tonnes, margin per kilogram and safety indicators reported weekly, with targets and intervention thresholds.

Key Performance Indicators

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The following are the operating measures on which this business should be managed. Three of them — the realised gas margin per kilogram, the bulk delivered price, and cylinder fills a trading day — should be calculated on every delivery and every trading day rather than monthly.

Indicator

Definition

Target

Why it matters

Cylinder fills per trading day

Fills divided by trading days

47 by Year 4

Break-even is 30.9. The single volume measure the whole model rests on

Realised gas margin per kilogram

Gas gross profit divided by kilograms sold

R10.64 rising to R12.40

The only gas variable the shop influences, and it is set in the supply agreement

Bulk delivered price per kilogram

Invoiced bulk cost divided by kilograms received

At or below R30.80

Break-even buying price is R34.39. Headroom is roughly 12%

Fill loss

Kilograms received less kilograms sold, divided by received

Below 1.8%

Vapour, purging and weighing tolerance. Calibration and discipline; small but free

Accessory gross profit as a share of total

Accessory gross profit divided by total gross profit

Above 20%

Without accessories break-even rises from 30.9 to 43.1 fills a day

Bulk deliveries per month

Deliveries received

1.2 in January rising to 4.9 in July

The vessel holds 4165 kg. Winter demand is met by frequency, not by stockpiling

Cylinder float integrity

Float cylinders counted against register

R512 000 of capital

Theft and loss run against a capital item, not an expense line

Debt service cover

EBITDA divided by interest and capital

Above 1.30x from Year 3

Cover is negative in Year 1. Covenants must be structured for that

Compliance currency

Licence, fire permit, CoC and SAQCC registration current

100%

Every one of these is a gating item. A lapse stops trading, not merely a renewal

Safety incidents and near misses

Reportable incidents recorded

Zero

Insurance is conditional on maintaining compliance

14.1 How the four gating approvals are monitored

Approval

Renewal or review cycle

Who owns it

What a lapse costs

Filling licence

Annual renewal on the issuing authority’s cycle

Owner-manager

Trading stops immediately. This is not a fine; it is a closure

Fire department permit

Periodic inspection by the local authority

Owner-manager

Trading stops, and the insurance position falls away with it

Certificate of Conformity

On installation and after any material modification

SAQCC practitioner

Any change to the vessel or filling bay without a fresh certificate voids the compliance position

SAQCC Gas registration

Per practitioner, on the committee’s cycle

The registered filler

The shop cannot lawfully fill. A single expiry stops the business

Municipal consent use

Site-specific, reviewed on change of use

Owner-manager

Cannot be transferred to another site. It is why the site is chosen before the lease

Cylinder revalidation

Roughly every ten years per cylinder

Counter and admin

Applies to the float and to customer cylinders. A rejected fill becomes a revalidation sale

Every one of these is a gating item rather than a cost line, and each has a different owner and a different cycle. A single compliance register with named ownership and dated renewals is the control, and it is reviewed monthly alongside the three operating numbers. The reason to hold it in one place is that the items expire independently: a shop can be entirely current on its filling licence and still be unable to trade because a practitioner’s registration lapsed a fortnight earlier.