MOL Romania: higher profit, but lower sales

MOL Romania, the Romanian branch of the Hungarian petroleum group MOL, posted a net profit worth 6 million euros in the first nine months of the year, a value similar to the profits reported by the company for the whole of last year. However, the group’s sales on the domestic market were down by some 4.2% against the same time last year, as a result of a reduced distribution network. In the first nine months of 2006, MOL Romania posted business worth 477 million euros, up by 60% against the same time in 2005. The decline in MOL’s sales on the Romanian market is explained by the group’s representatives through the decline in the amount of petrol stations by 13%, as a result of the exchange with Petrom. Through a transaction conducted last year, MOL gave up 30 petrol stations to Petrom, receiving in return 11 stations plus an amount of money. In addition to the 30 stations, MOL also gave up its airplane fuel business MOL Aviation. MOL Romania representatives say that, despite the reduction of the market share to 12.4%, average sales per station increased by 11% in the analysed period. “We got confirmation that the strategy we adopted last year was a winning one: we already have a net profit of 6 million euros and, most importantly, we managed to boost average sales per station by 11% against the same time last year. This is the most important indicator showing how effective a petroleum company’s retail is,” says Zsolt Szalay, CEO of MOL Romania.