Leak detection systems for petrol stations - ErpecNews

a rompetrol site in Bucharest with a tokheim pump in the foreground
showing the ‘Fill & Go’ terminal.
Rompetrol – Winning hearts and minds
Meeting up with Eric Kish, Vice President of
Retail at Rompetrol, is all you have to do to
fully understand where the drive from this
high performing retail operator comes from.
Glancing at his watch and then looking back
at me with a smile, he says “You have 15
minutes”. I was, armed with enough questions
for at least two hours and he had stopped me
right in my tracks. Somehow though I knew
that as long as the interview was going OK, I
would get more time. In the end he gave me
45 minutes which was great.
Rompetrol was originally set up in 1974 as the
international service arm for the Romanian oil
industry, but it was acquired in 1993, through
a management and employees buyout, becoming
the first such company to be privatised in
Romania. One of the reasons Rompetrol has
been so successful, is the speed at which it
has been able to turn it’s business around.
Buying one bankrupt refinery in 1999 and a
second one in 2001, meant it being able to
move forward with a clean slate, unhindered
by historic baggage. Whilst Rompetrol has
made some private acquisitions of petrol stations
over the last nine years, most of their
115 company owned sites, which together with
their 181 partner stations make up their retail
network in Romania, have been built from
new. Outside of Romania, Rompetrol has 20
company owned and 37 partner stations in
Bulgaria, 21 company owned sites in Georgia,
810 partner sites in Moldovia and 200 Dyneff
stations in France.
Since 2007, Eric has been responsible for the
integration of all downstream, retail planning
and marketing operations carried out in all
countries where Rompetrol is present. Prior
to joining the company eight years ago, Eric
had a 12 year expatriate career with the Tetra
Wi-Fi in all hei stores attracts
many businessmen for coffee.
Pak Group in Sweden, ELWE Electrical
Equipment in Germany and Eshed Robotec
Industrial Automation in Israel, Hong Kong,
Holland and the US.
Eric is clearly an inspiration to the people who
work with him and one of these people who
talks and everyone listens. When he said to
me that he has never read a book which says it
cannot be done, you begin to get the measure
of the man who wants to make Rompetrol one
of the top ten retailers in Europe over the
next 10 years. He believes in working
with local people wherever
possible and
claims that
employees
a r e l e s s
enthusiastic
about working
for multi-national
companies than they
were. “The future is
not about winning bat- tles and
territories, it is about winning hearts and
minds and Rompetrol’s future growth is in
the retail experience we give our customers
and the innovative services we can offer
them” he says.
An excellent example of the modern shopping
experience Eric wants all his customers to
have, can be seen at any of the 68 hei convenience
stores and fast food restaurants on
Rompetrol sites up and down the country. A
state of the art design with a welcoming, well
lit and fresh looking shopping area is the key
to this modern store and restaurant, which
comes complete with wi-fi facilities for the
business traveller. Hot and fresh fast food options
are available on a varied menu and the
store has a comprehensive range of products
and services. Another 20 hei stores will be
built this year, as a minimum.
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Smart, fresh looking, comprehensive ranges of products and, attractive
well lit displays, makes all the difference at hei stores
SHoP SPoT
On the forecourt, an innovative proposition for
Rompetrol customers, is the introduction of it’s
‘Fill & Go’, pay at the pump facility, developed
by Orpak, which is available on every site in
the network, but not on any other competitive
sites in Romania. According to Rompetrol,
the site study carried out in connection with
the ‘Fill & Go’ programme has revealed that
visitors to the shop have not diminished, but
increased, as a result of customers paying at
the pump. A ‘Fill & Go’ credit card is available
as an option which can be used to
purchase shop products as well
as fuel.
Rompetrol Downstream
in Romania
has an objective to
increase it’s market share
by 4 percent next year, in a
market which is estimated to grow
by 5–7 percent during the next 12 months.
“The growing number of car registrations
will account for much of this as a result of
improving life standards, but also transport
activities are becoming increasingly interesting
as an investment destination, assuring further
demand for petrol products” said Eric.
Expansion plans outside of Romania will
centre on Bulgaria and France. Dyneff will
continue to roll out the Rompetrol brand
and modernise it’s retail network in France,
looking at more up to date shops and having
competitively priced products on the shelves.
In France, like Romania, the retail strategy is
oriented to internal growth by enlarging the
product offering and external growth, by the
acquisition of new assets.
The building and maintenance of the network
on a day to day basis is in the hands of Adrian
Balan-Doltu, formerly with Petrom who is
Director of Engineering, a position he took
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