Prague, 7th April 2011 – Today BENZINA unveiled the first fully self-service fuel station on the Czech market, also known as Expres 24. The new self-service fuel station has been in operation since April 1, in Vysoké Mýto. BENZINA is also testing two fuel station brands popular in neighbouring countries, i.e. STAR (known in Germany) and ORLEN (a Polish brand also introduced on the Lithuanian market). Both stations will sell BENZINA fuels. Given its strong commitment to fuel quality, the company supports most of the current legislative changes intended to provide more protection for consumers and to limit tax evasion on the side of petrol station companies. BENZINA is also proposing that obligatory report performed by the Czech Trade Inspection on the fuel quality distinguishes serious problems from minor discrepancies.
“For the Unipetrol Group, BENZINA is the key retail channel with huge economic benefits. In the Czech Republic, BENZINA is practically synonymous with fuel or fuel station; it has a long tradition of competence starting in 1958 and an extensive stations network. We can also be proud of the quality of our fuels, which always come up among the top ones on the market in the independent tests,” says Piotr Chełmiński, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Unipetrol.
Self-service Expres 24 fuel station
“Expres 24 is the first fully self-service fuel station in the Czech Republic. The clients can buy our high-quality fuel quicker and also cheaper. Thanks to cost savings, we are able to offer lower prices at Expres 24,” says Martin Durčák, Executive of BENZINA.
The Expres 24 fuel station has been in operation since 1st of April in Vysoké Mýto. It is open to drivers nonstop, offering BENZINA’s high-quality Natural 95 and Diesel TOP Q fuels. The customers can now pay by cards, but in the nearest future will be offered a chance to pay by cash via special automats at the stands.
“We believe our customers will react positively to the new technology and we are ready to install more self-service stations on several dozen selected sites,” Martin Durčák added.
Test of Orlen and Star concepts
The test of Orlen and Star concepts will commence in April 2011 and conclude at the end of this year. This scissor strategy test should answer the question if such concept will be successful in Czech Republic. The new fuel stations are created by transformation of seven original BENZINA fuel stations. “We are testing the customers’ reaction to two concepts with different brands, prices, shop offers and refreshments,” commented Martin Durčák.
The Orlen stations are intended mostly for customers who are oriented towards high standard products and services. It will offer the same fuels as Benzina Plus including the Verva premium fuels. Orlen is a very well known brand on the Polish and Lithuanian markets, where its logo can be seen on more than one thousand stations. In the Czech Republic, three Orlen stations will operate in Velká Dobrá, Chomutov and Mnichovo Hradiště.
The Star stations are intended more for price oriented customers. Network comes from Germany where it consists over 500 stations. Star will also offer the standard high quality fuels offered by BENZINA. Two Star stations will be located in Praha 9, two more in Nové Město nad Metují and in Hořice, Jičín region.
Changes in legislation and fuels quality
BENZINA welcomes the current changes in legislation intended to provide more protection for consumers and to limit tax evasion. This mostly relates to the amendment of the Act on Fuels and Filling Stations no. 311/2006 Coll. and the amendment to the Act on VAT no. 47/2011 Coll.
The Czech Trade Inspection will have an obligation to publish a list of fuel stations whose samples did not meet the fuel quality requirements. “This amendment will have to provide more details. Currently, the CzTI puts one list for the stations with small discrepancies and those where serious problems were found f.ex. where the fuel caused damage to the engine or the environment. The honest fuel traders who just had a minor problem could suffer from this,” said Martin Durčák.
In 2011, all samples taken from the BENZINA stations by the CzTI met all the requirements. As part of the Quality Seal system, BENZINA conducts more than the standard control of its fuel quality. It demands that one station is inspected, on average, more than five times a year (1850 inspections on the 337 BENZINA stations), while the CzTI does, on average, one inspection per every two years for one station (1866 inspections on the 3672 publicly available stations per year).
Apart from the consumer protection, the amendments are also to limit tax evasion. According to the amendment of the new VAT legislation, the final seller will have to guarantee the unpaid tax, even if the supplying company goes bankrupt. These cases quite usually show a big difference between offer price and the usual market price. “There are plenty of such suspiciously advantageous offers in the network of fuel-trading companies, and we are able to show some of them.” Martin Durčák confirmed.
The “Go crazy for bicycles” promotion
Starting on April 18, BENZINA will offer its clients a special spring promotion called “Go crazy for bicycles”. After purchasing 30 litres of fuel, the clients will receive a cycling-themed gift – a set of tools or blinking lights. For 80 litres, the customers will receive a premium gift. Every customer who pays at least 500 CZK at BENZINA station will be able to participate in an SMS contest, where five bicycles will be drawn every day.
The promotion will have media support from radio stations (Evropa 2, Impuls and the MMS regional stations network), as well as, from bigboards, billboards and citylights.
BENZINA, s.r.o. with its 337 public fuel stations, is operating the biggest state-wide network in the Czech Republic. It offers fuels along with other goods and services to a broad range of customers. The BENZINA trademark has been present on the market for over 50 years. Today the company is a 100% subsidiary of the Unipetrol Holding. BENZINA’s local retail market share at the end of 2010 reached 14.2 %. Find out more at www.benzinaplus.cz
Contact:
Václav Loula, BENZINA s.r.o.,
Na Pankráci 127, 140 00 Praha 4
Tel.: +420 284 012 555
e-mail: vaclav.loula@benzina.cz