The reason for this decline was the reduction of the range of fuels sold, after the discontinuation of Eco Premium leaded petrol in April.
"Every old Dacia car that used such fuel turned to another vendor, which had an impact on our market share," said representatives for the company.
Overall, the sales of MOL Romania, in volumes, increased by 2% in the first nine months of the year compared with the same time last year, and the most important factor that helped achieve this growth were the sales to the corporate segment, whose loyalty was ensured through the card system the company put in place.
Therefore sales to corporate clients in the first nine months went up by 7% in volume.
"We will continue to focus on our business to business customers because long-term partnerships are a key element of our strategy in Romania," Zsolt Szalay, country chairman of MOL Romania said.
As for sales in filling station stores, this area posted an 8% increase in euros because of improved management of the product categories sold.
According to the data of the group, Romania is the only country where MOL saw its fuel sales go up, considering its retail sales in Hungary fell by 2% in the first nine months of the year, and stagnated in Slovakia.
MOL operates a network of 130 filling stations in Romania, eight of which opened this year. The total investments in the development of the petrol stations network amount to more than 150 million euros. MOL is the fourth-largest player in Romania by market share, after Petrom, Rompetrol and Lukoil, but is really close to OMV Romania, whose market share stood at 10% according to the latest information. The total value of the sales through filling stations was put at 6.5-7 billion euros.
Most players on this market anticipate growth to stand at 5% at the most next year, given the international financial crisis. Fuel sales on the local market have gone up by 10% this year. Despite this slowdown, the local market remains the most attractive region, given that the markets in Western Europe have been stagnating for a few years and are about to be affected by a recession.
MOL Romania posted a 24% increase in turnover in RON in the first six months of the year, to approximately 1,052.9 million RON (286.9 million euros), compared with the same time last year, when it posted 849.15 million RON (255 million euro) in turnover.
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