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Slovenia energy group, Petrol, plans to invest
428 million euros in the balkans
Slovenian energy group Petrol will invest in
Slovenia and Southeast European markets
a total of 428 million euros by the end of
2014, Petrol chairman Aleksander Svetelsek
informed the press in Zagreb. He added that
the group would invest 75 million euros in
Croatia and employ an additional 300 people
there. Svetelsek said at Petrol’s first press
Shell aiming to surpass bP in Germany
Shell has reached an agreement to purchase
44 service stations from leading German
grocer, Edeka. The acquisition would enhance
Shell’s position in Germany as it looks to fend
off the threat of supermarket fuel retailers,
and pull ahead of its main rival, BP-owned
Aral. However, in such a concentrated market,
doubts remain as to whether the deal will
be approved by the competition authorities
Each of the service stations in question are
located at Edeka’s Marktkauf supermarkets
and if acquired would be re-branded and
operated by Shell. Customers purchasing
goods at Edeka stores with a Shell service
station would be able to receive a discount
of 2 percent per litre on fuel. The proposed
acquisition would leave Edeka with 56 service
stations, and increase the number of Shell
branded sites in Germany to 2 240. However,
this still wouldn’t be enough to overtake Aral
which has over 2 300 branded sites. Despite
Aral having the largest network, both Shell
and Aral are neck and neck in terms of fuel
market share, with both retailers each accounting
for 23 percent of fuel sales in the
country. For Edeka, the proposed sale comes
as no great surprise. Edeka is increasingly
focusing on its discount stores as it attempts
LateSt NewS, eveNtS, JobS oNLINe – www.PetroLPLaza.CoM
conference ever in Croatia that the group
was planning to develop its retail activities
through filling stations and to make it among
the top three fuel retailers in Southeast
Europe. According to him, the Petrol group
intends to increase annual revenues each
year by 10 percent. Svetelsek also announced
that Petrol would start selling in Croatia on
July 1st its next-generation fuels, which have
been already introduced in Slovenia. Of the
mentioned 428 million euros, 54 percent
will be invested in fuel retail activities in
Southeast Europe and 17 percent in Slovenia,
while 29 percent will be invested in retail of
gas and other energy products.
to challenge Aldi and Lidl with its own discount
grocery chains, Netto and Plus. For
Shell, the deal could move the fuel retailer
above Aral in Germany, in terms of fuel
market share – something which is unlikely
to happen simply through organic growth.
The acquisition would also be positive for
Shell (and other oil company branded fuel
retailers in the country) as it would reduce
the threat, however small, of supermarket
fuel retailers in the country.
On the other hand, the deal may be a blow for
forecourt competition in Germany. Less than
1 percent of fuel sold in Germany is through
supermarket sites, although 15 percent of
German motorists in a recent Datamonitor
survey reported they have been increasingly
using supermarkets, believing them to be
cheaper. It is partly for these reasons that
the deal could still be blocked by competition
authorities based on concerns that Shell
and Aral are too powerful. Indeed, in 2009
French oil company Total was refused permission
to acquire 59 sites in East Germany
from Austrian oil company OMV, as the deal
threatened to strengthen its position as well
as market leaders Shell and Aral.
topaz chooses KSS for fuel price management
Topaz, Ireland’s largest fuels and convenience
retailer with more than 300 sites, has selected
a suite of KSS products to provide day-to-day
fuel price management and optimization to
its retail locations. Topaz will use PriceNet,
PriceNet Mobile, PriceNet Web, KSS Visualizer
and KSS Mapping solutions for a fully
integrated fuel price management offering.
“We selected these KSS solutions to obtain the
highest level of efficiency around our execution
of fuel price changes. Having a system that
provides enhanced market responsiveness will
enable us to improve our overall performance
around fuel volume and margin”, said Frank
Gleeson, Retail Director for Topaz. “We are
convinced that these KSS solutions offer
our stores a ‘best practices’ approach to fuel
pricing. We are delighted to have Topaz as a
new partner and are eager to help them to
enhance their position as a global leader in
convenience retailing and improve profits”,
said Bob Stein.