The Polyglot Group Skytanking specialise in funding, building and operating all parts of the on-airport jet fuel supply chain, including fuelling, fuel storage & hydrant management.

01.
THE CLIENT

Skytanking

Skytanking specialise in funding, building and operating all parts of the on-airport jet fuel supply chain. More specifically, Skytanking provides a full range of aviation fuelling services including into-plane fuelling, aviation fuel storage and hydrant management, investment in aviation fuel facilities at airports and engineering.

Skytanking is currently present at more than 82 international airports in 14 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa, handling 24.7 million cbm of aviation fuel and fuelling more than 2 million aircrafts per year.

Skytanking was acquired by US company, Prime Flight, in April 2021. The combined company will be one of the industry’s largest, providing aviation support services at over 200 locations around the world.

The Polyglot Group

Founded

1998
The Polyglot Group

HQ

Hamburg, Germany
The Polyglot Group

Company Size

1900+ employees
The Polyglot Group

Industry

Airlines / Aviation
The Polyglot Group

Specialties

Aviation Fuelling, Airport Fuel Storage, Aviation Fuel Storage Engineering, Airport Fuel Storage Investment, Fuel Hydrant System, Airport Fuel Farm

“Polyglot Group has really helped us streamline our processes. Because we’re still a new company, there are times when we really just need some help and Polyglot is always there to give us advice. Laura and her team are amazing.”

02.
THE CHALLENGE

In line with its goal to become an international partner of choice within the aviation fuelling industry, Skytanking closed a landmark deal at the end of 2020 to operate the aviation fuel storage and hydrant system at Sydney Airport.

The contract was awarded to Skytanking Australia after an extensive public tender process, which evaluated the bidders’ technical and operational competencies, HSSE standards and innovative capabilities.

In order to fulfil the contract requirements, Skytanking needed to urgently incorporate an Australian subsidiary to compliantly operate in Australia, as well as hire and pay staff under local laws.

This is where Polyglot Group came in.

03.
OUR SOLUTION

To ease their expansion into the Australian market, we partnered with Skytanking and delivered a comprehensive, multi-faceted package of services tailored to their specific needs.

To start off with, Skytanking Australia were looking to set up a local legal Australian entity as quickly as possible, which we assisted with.

From a financial perspective, on time and reliable financial reporting is a priority for Skytanking Head Office and operations here in Australia. To ensure smooth, on time reporting, we  provide Skytanking Australia our local accounting services ━ including monthly accounting processing and reporting, as well as batch payments. By setting them up with a cloud accounting software from the get-go, the Skytanking Australia team is also able to access their bank feed and track their money movements in semi-real time.

When PrimeFlight acquired Skytanking in 2021, we also facilitated the transition by implementing their HQ’s reporting & consolidation accounting software for Australia, which made the experience smooth for all parties involved. Once this was rolled out, we also assisted with the budgeting & forecasting process for the local entity.

In addition to meeting their  day to day accounting needs, we also assist Skytanking Australia with tax compliance requirements. This includes coordinating annual tax returns as well as lodging  BAS returns taking care of all  GST reporting obligations, in consultation with Skytanking Australia’s Tax Agent.

When Skytanking Australia was first incorporated, Polyglot provided payroll implementation and registration, including payroll tax, workers compensation and superannuation. Today, we continue to provide end-to-end payroll solutions, which includes preparing and processing payroll and disbursement, like, net payments to employees, PAYG monthly payments, superannuation and STP across 2 states (SA and NSW).

As Skytanking was starting up in a new market, we also provided start-up recruitment assistance, through our EOR services. Today, we continue to assist them with their hiring needs as they continue to grow.

Once the local entity had been established, we helped Skytanking Australia with their initial HR set-up to ensure they could start operations in the Australian market in accordance with local employment law practices. We provided Skytanking Australia with local templates for permanent, fixed-term and casual employment contracts to ensure they could manage all employee types compliantly.

As they continue to build their team, Polyglot provides salary benchmarking market advice, so that Skytanking Australia can better understand Australian employment and salary standards, and expectations, as well as better plan their budget moving forward.

We continue to support Skytanking as their ongoing HR provider helping them to ensure continued compliance with local standards.

Finally, Skytanking’s HQ is based in Germany, we regularly assist them with certified translation of documents.

04.
THE RESULTS

As one of the world’s largest airports in terms of fuel throughput, Sydney Airport remains an institution in the aerospace industry. The fact that it also stands as Australia’s busiest airport only adds to the appeal, making it a natural choice for Skytanking Australia.

Sydney being Skytanking’s first operation in Australia, also represents another milestone in the company’s global goal to be the preferred aviation fuel handling partner for airlines, airports, and fuel suppliers.

The company has grown further since then and is now also the operator and first independent into-plane provider at the Adelaide Fuel facility as well. We continue to assist both of these operations as they continue to grow.

Speaking of growth, over the course of 18 months, the company grew so much that their team tripled in size! Skytanking was only able to achieve these milestones due their knowledgeable and reliable business, financial & HR partner: Polyglot Group.

In Skytanking’s own words: “Polyglot Group has really helped us streamline our processes. Because we’re still a new company, there are times when we really just need some help and Polyglot is always there to give us advice. Laura and her team are amazing.”

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