Benzina Plus - new premium retail brand
25-10-2006    capital group, finance, products & services
 

Prague, 25th October 2006
Benzina launches Benzina Plus premium brand

Benzina implements extensive changes to strengthen its market position

In line with its new business strategy Benzina, the Czech Republic’s largest fuel retail network, introduces a premium brand Benzina Plus. The company plans to upgrade and re-brand over 102 out of its more than 300 filling stations across the country. The project is aimed at attracting the most demanding motorists with a broad range of premium services and to increase Benzina´s market share. The first Benzina Plus was officially opened today on the D1 motorway near Prague.

Changes in Benzina’s retail strategy are part of the Partnership Progamme, which is intended to integrate the whole UNIPETROL holding with its mother company PKN ORLEN and to improve UNIPETROL´s efficiency. The process of change began in 2005, after UNIPETROL was privatised and became a part of the leading Central European refining & petrochemical group of PKN ORLEN. It started with a substantial cash injection of CZK 1.3 billion made by UNIPETROL to strengthen Benzina´s financial position, this enabled the large investments required to improve the overall company’s market position to take place.

New retail network strategy
A detailed market survey showed that today’s Benzina positioning is unclear to consumers. Motorists perceive the brand to be inconsistent, standing somewhere between the cheap brands or no-names at one end of the scale, and premium networks at the other. Moreover its visual integrity is considered to be missed, and the services it offers are seen as rather poor and not good value-for-money. The survey showed a need to improve service and to restore the brand’s indentity.

The new strategy of the Benzina retail network splits the network into two sub-brands to clearly cater for different consumer segments. The new premium brand Benzina Plus filling stations will offer top service to those who require high quality and a wide choice of products. The remaining stations, under the brand Benzina, will cater for motorists who look for good quality at a reasonable price. The network’s transformation will cost approximately 1.3 billion CZK.

“PKN ORLEN has proven experience in implementing restructuring and successful marketing strategies in petrol retailing in the Polish market. This experience has shown that a two-tiered model is highly effective. Today using this knowledge we are building a leading position in the highly competitive Central European fuel market. I believe that the business concept which is being implemented by Benzina will more than meet consumers´ expectations and their diversified needs”, says PKN ORLEN´s President, Igor Chalupec.

Three stages of transformation
The strategy of introducing the new brand Benzina Plus into the market will have three stages. The objective of the first stage is to improve, by the end of 2006, the functioning of existing filling stations, ensure their financial stability, and strengthen the company’s internal co-ordination with PKN ORLEN’s support and expertise. In the second stage, by the end of 2007, Benzina will complete the transformation of 75 of its existing filling stations into outlets featuring premium products under the Benzina Plus brand, to end up with 102 Benzina Plus outlets by 2009. The third stage, to be completed in 2008 and 2009, will focus on enhancing the Benzina brand throughout its large network. “Everywhere you go there is Benzina at a reasonable distance from you which provides us with a good chance to succeed in the growing Czech market”, says Martin Durčák, Benzina´s CEO.

New design
In addition to its new name, the premium brand Benzina Plus will also feature a new design. Benzina’s traditional livery – red and white – will be replaced by red, silver and blue. The forecourt, totem poles as well as the logo – all of these will take on a new appearance. Benzina Plus will also rebuild existing facilities and services, primarily those with the biggest traffic. The infrastructure will develop very quickly. Four newly-built filling stations (of this brand) are planned every year for the next few years. Alongside development of the Benzina Plus premium network, a redesign and modernisation of other stations will be completed by 2009. There is also special focus on a group of Kaučuk and Paramo stations which operate with a “yellow” and “blue” design. They will all be either disposed of or redesigned to the standard Benzina red by 2007.

Benzina with its 327 public filling stations operates the largest nation-wide network in the Czech Republic, offering fuels and other goods and services to broad customer groups. Benzina a. s. was established on 1st January 1994, when the original state enterprise, Benzina, was split into Benzina a. s., ČEPRO a. s. (pipelines) and Benzina s. p. (state owned). Benzina is fully owned by UNIPETROL holding company. Benzina´s market share was 9.9% in 2005 what positioned the company at the third place in the Czech fuel retail market.

UNIPETROL with revenues of CZK 105.8 billion and net profit of CZK 3.46 billion in 2005 belongs to the Czech Republic´s most important companies and it specializes in refining of crude oil, petrochemicals, agrochemicals and qualified chemicals. Fixed capital of the company is over CZK 18 billion and the number of employees exceeds 7 thousand. In 2005 a majority share in UNIPETROL was privatized by PKN ORLEN.

PKN ORLEN is the biggest Central European oil company, with headquarters in Poland. Having reached revenues of 42.8 billion PLN (CZK 311 billion) in 2005 the company turned out to be the largest corporation within the new EU countries. At the moment PKN is working on completion of acquisition of the Baltic´s biggest refinery in Mažeikiu (Lithuania). PKN ORLEN’s shares are traded on Stock exchanges in Warsaw and London. The whole ORLEN Capital Group includes about 80 subsidiaries and employs over 20 thousand people.

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PKN ORLEN



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