THE Methodist Church in Fiji revealed an investment of $3.6m in its newly constructed service station, which has officially opened at Mataika Place in Davuilevu, Nausori.
The new service station will be operated by Lako Yani Retail Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of the Church’s business arm the Lako Yani Management Pte Ltd.
The Lako Yani retail service station comes alongside a 10-year plan of the Methodist Church endorsed during the Methodist Church annual conference to develop the Church’s idle assets in order to fund the initial mandate of the Methodist Church in Fiji.
Constructed on a landmass of 1200 square meters, the commercial lot is one of the two lots earmarked by the Methodist Church for development.
Lako Yani Management Ltd chief executive officer Sereana Qoro said the Church was initially approached by Mobil Oils in 2020 with a proposition to participate in a joint venture to construct service stations.
This was before the annual conference in which the Church endorsed its 10-year development plan, where it approved Mobil’s proposal.
“Mobil allocated half a million, they gave us $450,000 so we started, and part of the agreement is for us to maintain the brand name.
“People driving on the road know they can fill up their vehicle when they see Mobil signs on the road because they are an international brand,” Ms Qoro said.
She said the station features four fuel pumps and a kerosene pump.
“This station has four sources of income, the fuel pumps, two shop spaces which will be used by the Wasewase Davuilevu as first right of refusal, and a coffee shop for customers,” she said.
“This service station took 10 months to build and is expected to sell three million litres of fuel every year and our work is to just manage it promisingly and fund the initial work of the church.”
Ms Qoro said the operations of the new Lako Yani retail service station will be equipped with security cameras and remotely monitored from the Methodist Church headquarters at Epworth house in Suva.
Note: This article was first published on the print version of the Fiji Times dated August 20, 2025