Petrol Station 2018

 

As each year, the Warsaw Fair of the Polish Chamber of Liquid Fuels gathered companies and brands among other things from Europe, Asia, and America. You could encounter visitors from China or Mozambique. The Strategic Partner was BP Europa SE Branch in Poland, and the Main Partner – EHRLE.

“Polish petrol station market is a market with very high standards,” said Halina Pupacz, President of the Polish Chamber of Liquid Fuels, during the opening speech for the exhibition at the Warsaw EXPO XXI Centre. She emphasised the role of the Fair for the Polish economy, energy security and ecological security, and expressed her hope that it will be an inspiration for further business activities.

The opening ceremony was attended among others by Zbigniew Leszczyński, Member of the Management Board for Sales, PKN Orlen; Dr inż. Andrzej Ziółkowski, President of UDT; Krzysztof Kozłowski, head of DOFO BP; and Jerzy Bobrowicz, President of EHRLE. The congratulatory letter from Maciej Bando, President of the Energy Regulatory Authority (URE), was read by Lesław Żarski, Director of the URE Liquid Fuel Market Department. President Pupacz handed out awards to the longest standing exhibitors at the Fair: Corrimex, Petroster, PKN Orlen, Stokota, Brugg, Karcher, OPW, Sultof, Orlen Centrum Serwisowe, and Bernard Larisz, the current President of Adast Polska, previously in OCS.

 

25 years ago the Polish Chamber of Liquid Fuels established the Fair in order to popularise the highest standards in the oil industry, technical knowledge, security of the market responsible for the energy independence of our country and its economy. Therefore, the infrastructure for transporting, storing and distributing liquid and gas fuels is strongly represented here. There are companies dealing with the production, installation and servicing of: underground and ground tanks, dispensers, awnings, and complex visualisation [with particular attention paid to lighting!], etc. You can initiate cooperation with suppliers of fuels, buy tankers, equip a shop or a car wash. This is the first stop for anyone starting activity in the fuel sector. And for persons already active in the industry this is an opportunity to uphold business connections and get to know all novelties necessary to conduct business. The fuel infrastructure focus was reflected in the PRODUCT OF THE YEAR 2018 competition, however the circle of winners also included the “CRATER heating-cooling unit”. The entrepreneurs’ interest in this product proves that the non-fuel-related offer starts gaining importance: shop and catering items.

 

As each year, there was no shortage of fuel companies. You could study their franchise offer and terms of fuel delivery, but their catering corners were also very busy – full of novelties in interior decoration as well as professional kitchen appliances for: preparing, heating, displaying and distributing food articles and catering products.

Automotive attractions were also there. The PKN Orlen stand presented for example Effecta fuels and the BAQ fuel quality scheme, but… also the Stop.Cafe 2.0 catering corner, and the convenience O!Shop store. Spiżarnia Regionów (Regional Pantry) was a patriotic accent. The LOTOS petrol stations were advertised by Kajetan Kajetanowicz, but also… Cafe punkt. Foreign corporations well established in Poland: BP, Circle K, Shell, Total, besides the franchising offer, attracted visitors with their fleet fuel cards and… respectively: Wild Bean Caffe, Simply Great Coffe/Bakery, deli by Shell and Pause Cafe.

You could also talk about fuels, rebranding, non-fuel offers (shop, catering, leisure, services) with representatives of chains independent from refineries, such as MOYA (ANWIM SA) or AVIA (UNIMOT SA). It is worth noting that this year our guest was Mario Tonini, Managing Director of AVIA International, the largest European chain of independent stations. Wholesale fuel deliveries were offered by ONICO.

Not only corporations but also independent chains are interested in electromobility, installing Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations. The EV charging station offer was an extensive one, but you could also view and test among other things electric Tesla and BMW cars.In the “Methane Zone”, under the patronage of PIMOT, an LNG cryogenic tank, CNG filling station, CNG compressor, and vehicles powered by compressed natural gas were presented among other things.

Despite the fact that a grocery store at a petrol station is nothing new, our outlets are the object of growing interest from companies organising franchise chains in this segment. A special store format was presented for example by Carrefour. As a matter of fact, the grocery segment was very widely represented. This is because customers of petrol stations do not just look for fuels there, but first and foremost some leisure combined with a snack or a full meal.

 

The operation of each retail outlet is impossible today without the IT. This is connected with cybersecurity, including not just the recording of the full goods trade cycle in a logistic chain (for tax purposes, but also in the context of fuel quality), but also cashless payments. The latter is required by more and more devices – from fuel dispensers to vending machines. The offer in this area was prepared among others by Unicode System whose exhibition at our Fair coincided with the official visit of the President of the Czech Republic, Miloš Zeman, to the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda.

Automation means also car washes and the accompanying infrastructure, such as e.g. vacuum cleaners, compressors, vending machines, etc. Car washes are a separate and very extensive sector of the Fair, traditionally occupying mainly the open area in front of the EXPO XXI hall, however a number of solutions may also be viewed inside. All global manufacturers are currently present in the Polish market. Our domestic companies are deftly keeping up with them. The activity of a car wash is hedged by a number of environmental protection requirements, among which separators of oil-derivative substances constitute only one of elements.

Both legal and strictly business-related aspects of the fuel sector were covered in lectures given under the traditional ENTREPRENEUR’S ACADEMY. And the Discussion Forum, traditionally accompanying the Fair, supplemented by industry meetings, such as the meeting of the Franchise Station Section, constituted an opportunity for an open discussion about the current situation in the industry.

The Discussion Forum” Liquid Fuel Market 2018. Selected topics” – was held this year under the slogan “Challenges for the fuel industry in 2018”. Before the content-related part commenced, the highest distinctions of the Polish Chamber of Liquid Fuels were handed out – GOLDEN OCTANE statuettes. In the “Representative of Government Administration” category – the award was received by Krzysztof Tchórzewski, Minister of Energy, and Marian Banaś, Head of the National Tax Administration – for undertaking resolute actions contributing to the reduction of the so-called “grey area”, and thus equalising the competitive opportunities of private entrepreneurs. In the “Entrepreneur” category, the GOLDEN OCTANE went to the President of EHRLE Jerzy Bobrowicz, and in the “Company” category: to ANWIM SA/ MOYA chain; Corrimex; and PKN Orlen.