Benzina filling stations, the leader of the Czech market, will be gradually renamed Orlen

Benzina gas stations, the leader of the Czech market, will be gradually renamed Orlen. At the first eight pumps in the Czech Republic, the Polish company PKN Orlen will make a change by the end of this year. As now, there will be elements of both Benzina and Orlen on them, but the name Orlen will become dominant, for example, on totems with prices or in the name of the station. More stations in the network are to follow in the coming years. The Benzina brand has been operating on the Czech market for more than 60 years.

Since 2018, PKN Orlen has been the sole owner of the domestic petrochemical holding Orlen Unipetrol, to which the Benzina Orlen network belongs. From the announcement of the Polish company from the beginning of September, it is clear that the company is gradually unifying the names of pumps in all countries where it operates. Apart from Poland and Lithuania, where the company's pumps already have the Orlen label, these are the Czechia, Slovakia and Germany. Already at the beginning of this year, PKN added the name Orlen to the name of the Unipetrol holding and the network of Benzina petrol pumps.

In the Czech Republic, Benzina operates 421 filling stations and, with a market share of 25.2 percent of retail fuel sales, is a long-term market leader. Benzina has 15 stations in Slovakia. "All these facilities have already been marked and now operate under the name Benzina Orlen. In Slovakia, the rebranding process will start in October and cover ten stations, and in December it will start in the Czech Republic at eight selected stations," the Polish company said.

PKN will gradually rename individual pumps in the Czech Republic, depending on how it will reconstruct individual filling stations. In recent years, the company has innovated tens of pumps a year. The Orlen Group is present in more than 110 countries around the world and more than half of its revenues come from foreign markets. To strengthen the Group's position in global markets, we strive to further develop the Orlen Group's retail network in Europe. Petrol to the international network of Orlen filling stations.

The company has previously investigated the possibility of changing the name of Benzina pumps. In 2011, the company launched a test project, when Benzina transformed several filling stations in the Czech Republic into Star and Orlen brands. In recent years, however, the company has reduced these plans as well as other Benzina Plus brands. However, the network gradually increases the awareness of Czechs about Orlen - a horse, which is the emblem of Benzina, added in 2019 at selected places and products of gas stations of the network eagle as the emblem of Orlen.

Last year, the Benzina Orlen network's operating profit fell by 11 percent year on year to 1.8 billion crowns. The reason for the decline, according to the company, was the effects of the covidu-19 pandemic, which caused lower mobility of the population and the corporate sector and a decline in sales of fuels. On the other hand, sales in the non-fuel segment increased by eight percent year-on-year, as gas stations served as alternative places to buy food and refreshments during the emergency, the company said.

The national company Benzina was established during the nationwide economic reorganization on April 1, 1958. Orlen Unipetrol and Benzina Orlen have been part of the Polish PKN Orlen Group since 2005. At the end of 2015, Benzina became a subsidiary of Unipetrol RPA (now Orlen Unipetrol RPA), a subsidiary by Orlen Unipetrol.

Source: PKN Orlen and CTK