Hungarian oil group MOL has set itself a target in Romania for the medium term: obtaining a 15% market share. The company is planning to expand, both in terms of network size and sales volume.
The Hungarian group currently has a 6% market share, though this is set to reach 12% by the end of this year after it acquires all of Shell's petrol stations.
"Depending on what opportunities there are, we will take over or build other petrol stations as well, and that way we might hit the target we have set of 15% of the market," Robak Karoly, MOL Romania executive manager, told ZF Transilvania.
In late November, the Hungarian group signed a contract of over 54 million euros for the takeover of Shell Romania, bringing a total of 59 petrol stations into the MOL network. Mol had previously acquired 22 stations from Shell.
"After we get all the necessary authorisations for the takeover of the entire Shell network that we acquired in late 2004, will redecorate all these stations as MOL stations within a period of maximum 6 months," the Mol Romania manager added.
He also said that, after the Competition Council approves the transaction, MOL would have 130 units countrywide.
The company's representatives say last year was the most profitable year since MOL came to Romania.
"We have succeeded in raising the number of stations by 50% compared with 2003, while fuel sales and sales logged in stores saw an 80% rise," Robak added. Last year, the company built three new stations - in Focsani, Medias and Reghin - and changed the brand identity for the first 22 petrol stations acquired from Shell.
"The new signs of market liberalisation are encouraging and we hope that in 2005 the oil industry in Romania will become aligned with European standards," continued Robak.
MOL Romania Petroleum Products is a branch of the MOL group, which, as one of the leaders of the Central and Eastern Europe market, together with its Croatian partner in the field of oil and gas, INA company, owns more than 1,000 petrol stations in 11 countries.
The Romanian company was set up in 1995 in Cluj; it has around 1,000 employees; and in 2003 it generated a turnover of 150 million euros - though it did make some losses.
In the landscape of the Romanian retail market at the start of 2005, OMV appears as the market leader with 750 petrol stations and two brands - one of which is Petrom; OMV is followed by LukOil, with its network of over 200 stations. Next comes MOL with 130 stations, then Agip with 21 stations, and finally around 800 privately-owned petrol stations. transilvania@zf.ro
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