MOL Romania opened Tuesday near Ploiesti, the first gas station in the pilot project of introducing the concept Fresh Corner, following a greenfield type investment of 1.5 million euros, which would depreciate in eight years, he said. The oil company said that this year will open four more such stations in Bucharest and Sibiu. The company intends to renew a part of the distribution network in 2016.

Lars Höglund, senior vice president of MOL Group, responsible for the Retail segment, said that in Eastern Europe are currently 21 such projects of Fresh Corner, implemented at other stations of the group, and by the end of August, there will be 30 in total. In addition, the MOL representative said that the group’s total investments in Romania will reach 20 million euros this year.

“Having a regional presence, MOL has identified new ways to value its network of petrol stations, defining a relevant new offer to its customers, focusing on coffee, fresh food and a wide range of shopping for the home, placed under a new design the interior of the store,” said Lars Höglund.

According to him, the objective is to position the group in the first three places in every market in which it operates. Currently, MOL is the leader in Hungary, Croatia and Slovakia, and in 2nd place in the Czech Republic.

The MOL official stated that with the launch of this new project, it’s not trying to be a supermarket, to provide “everything for everyone”, although some products may have the same prices as in a supermarket.

“But when we propose an offer with pastries, we no longer think like an oil company, but simply come to meet our customers’ preferences,” added the Senior Vice President of MOL.

“In Romania we held a series of focus groups for the selection of flavors of coffee and pastries. We will closely monitor how will the new offer of products will integrate in the shopping habits of drivers Romanian daily,” said Camelia Ene, head of retail MOL Romania.

MOL has operations in more than 40 countries and approximately 29,000 employees. The group has over 75 years of experience in exploration and production of hydrocarbons, with manufacturing operations in 8 countries and exploration activities in 13 countries. It controls four refineries and two petrochemical units in the integrated management of the supply chain in Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia. The company also has a network of approximately 2,000 filling stations in Central and South Eastern Europe, in 12 countries, of which about 200 in Romania.

Source

Mediafax