Marking 14 Years of Hawks Pvt Ltd

For a fuel supply business that started back in 2007 with one 5000-liter diesel bowser and a dedicated team to become one of the largest and most successful locally owned establishments of today is quite the achievement. Looking back over the past 14 years of significant growth, it was a number of key strategic decisions by forward-thinking leaders that has led the way to success for Hawks Pvt Ltd. 

Coral Glass Team had the opportunity to go over the journey of Hawks Pvt Ltd with General Manager / Director of Sales, Hussain Aman.  

Male’ being the capital of Maldives has always been the central hub for businesses. Businessmen from all around the archipelago must travel to the capital for one or the other requirement at some point. This was more significant over a decade back when modern day technologies were commonly unfamiliar. Surrounded by 99% water, the nation depended on sea travel and fishing, two things that have been engraved into the national culture and heritage.  

The very core of Hawks in the beginning was to deliver fuel to boats docking at the Male’ Harbour. There was ample demand for it since supply boats and fishing boats were continuously in movement but fuel supply was limited to only two parties. In order to build a sellable service, Hawks needed to partner with one of the parties who were importing and distributing fuel at the time, however, being a new business model had its challenges. 

Nevertheless, the founders of Hawks, Ahmed Rasheed Hassan and Hassan Rifau were determined to start with what they have and work around the shortcomings. Going door to door, or boat to boat in this case, slow but steady business started rolling. Personal touch was working its magic in building genuine connections and the business started to earn trust of its customers as an efficient and timely supplier. In what seemed to be the blink of an eye, Hawks gained control of fuel supply to over 85% of fishing sector of Maldives within 2 years’ time.  

Once a solid foundation was built around the business, Hawks started to focus on battling with the challenges in providing its services. It was a universal challenge in the fuel supply business to promise availability and deliverability and this was where a small investment in a delivery barge was the next smart step. The first delivery barge of Hawks had a 15,000-liter storage capacity and was the start of what stands today as a strong fleet of 44 vessels providing smooth operations on unmatched efficiency. These include tug boats, cargo boats, ferries and speed boats to name a few.  

A business may survive on its own once all operations are in place but expansion is key to sustaining it for the long run. Diversification can be a fundamental strategy that can help pave the way forward but the secret to success is not losing focus of your core business. In the several years that followed its initiation, Hawks increased its marine fleet gradually and maintenance of the vessels was quickly becoming troublesome.  

In a place where day to day operations ran on a schedule, timely delivery was of utmost priority hence looking into ways of improving vessel maintenance, Hawks invested in developing workshops in Thilafushi. This cut down costs immensely since instead of outsourcing the work, a professional team of inhouse engineers and mechanics doing well-monitored work on site ensured full control of the end product. Expanding on this success, Hawks built The Hawks Boat Yard which currently provides top-notch dry-docking services, professional boat building, fiber works, as well as refurbishments of existing vessels. The majority of Hawks boats are built from scratch and in-house with the best quality of products available on the market.  

By diversifying into boat building and maintenance, Hawks had access to heavy machinery that they later utilized in the construction sector. Adding architects and civil engineers to their team, the business was soon constructing hotels, guest houses and currently has resident buildings under construction in Hulhumale’ Phase Two. Though a little-known fact, the construction team at Hawks is knowledgeable and well-equipped to handle projects of mega scale. The largest privately owned fuel terminal in the Maldives at Thilafushi Island is proudly one of the most successful projects of Hawks Pvt Ltd till date.  

In the present day, Hawks stand firm on their promise of ‘think smart, supply fast’. A Hawks customer at any island or resort in the Maldives, despite any challenge in the way, will receive their order of fuel supply within 48 hours of request. One of the main reasons why this is possible is because in addition to the largest fleet of vessels in movement, Hawks has floating storage units in the vital locations of Baa Atoll, Dhaalu Atoll, and Huvadhoo Atoll. Advanced infrastructural developments like this have helped Hawks decentralize its operations and put a total capacity of 7 million liters of fuel storage outside the central hub of Male’. Moreover, the company sells fuel at a constant rate throughout the nation, an added advantage unavailable from any other fuel supplier in the country.  

No one had predicted the jolt of COVID19 before it took the world by storm. The world shut down, powerful economies crashed and movement halted. Global lockdowns forced vehicles to stay parked, and people to stay indoors. In such an unprecedented situation, Hawks’ biggest concern was the wellbeing of its nearly 500 staff members. At the end of the day, if a business cannot take care of the employees who work tirelessly to run operations, then it is the first sign of it being a failure. Even though times were tough, Hawks is honored to have not let go of any employee to COVID19. A thoughtful evaluation of its payment structure in the month of May 2020 to manage the situation was successfully revoked in September 2020 when business hopefully picked up again post border reopening in the Maldives.  

From small achievements to big milestones, Hawks Pvt Ltd has brought about exemplary executions to take away key lessons from. Their philosophy of remaining true to their core business even while diversifying has made connecting the dots easier and evidently resulted in better outcomes. Hawks plans for more infrastructural developments in the pipeline. One of their main goals will be to further reduce fuel delivery time to within 24 hours of request to any corner in Maldives, looking achievable with plans to station floating tanks in more atoll regions and adding more delivery barges into operation in upcoming months.  

Additionally, with the completion of its city hotel in Baa atoll, the total number of beds in operation at tourist accommodation facilities owned by Hawks will rise to 60 rooms. Reflecting on the major realization of Maldives being a heavily import-dependent economy during recent pandemic times, Hawks also plans to explore feasibility in the agriculture and poultry sector in the Maldives.