Orlen starts with three managers in Hungary
Csongor Takács | 06.01.2023 01:27
The Orlen Group, which will enter the Hungarian market on December 1, 2022, and which will transform a total of 143 domestic filling stations partly from Mol and partly from Normbenz, to the Orlen image, has recently appointed three executives for the big launch, according to the data of the Opten company information service provider.
Jenő Horváth-Dori fuel market specialist, the former managing director of Normbenz Hungary – former head responsible for MOL Hungary’s retail network – became one of the authorized signatories in the management, the other leader István Nagy, who was the director of Unipetrol, originally owned by Orlen (previously ENI for 32 years ) and before that he also held a position at MÁSZ), and the third registered boss was Jaroslaw Przemyslaw Szeliga, who was interested in the Czech market and was the director responsible for sales and procurement of Orlen’s network in the Czech Republic.
István Nagy, Jenő Horváth-Dori, Jaroslaw Przemyslaw Szeliga (photos: LinkedIn, graphics: NRGreport)
A two-year deal and minor market reorganization is slowly coming to an end
MOL in January 2022that according to the agreement signed with Grupa Lotos SA and PKN Orlen, 417 filling stations will buy in Poland.
It all started when the Polish PKN Orlen had to dispose of some of its assets, including part of the well network in Poland, due to the acquisition of the local competitor (Lotos) – for reasons of competition law. The pack was bought by Mol for 610 million dollars.
MOL also signed an agreement that year on the purchase of Normbenz Magyarország Kft., which operated 79 filling stations in Hungary under the Lukoil brand name. The MOL-Normbenz agreement was a continuation of an acquisition carried out in March 2021, during which Slovnaft, the Slovak subsidiary of the MOL Group, bought 100% ownership of Normbenz Slovakia sro and 16 filling stations in Slovakia operating under the Lukoil brand.
The bottom line is that as a result of the well agreements passed back and forth, 143 filling stations will gradually become Orlen brand in Slovakia (while 39 are being taken over from Mol in Slovakia), and as for the Normbenz-Lukoil wells, at the end of last year 79 gas stations were already owned by the Orlen group , so they already operate under Polish ownership. A64 filling station will be taken over by the Polish company until the middle of 2024.
![](https://nrgreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ORLEN__toltoallomas-300x200.jpg)
PKN ORLEN
The domestic retail market is no longer the largest in Mol’s portfolio
For PKN, Hungary became the 4th largest market within the group – by definition, Poland is in first place, with nearly 2,000 wells, followed by Germany and the Czech Republic. Through the acquisition, MOL not only entered the forefront of the Polish market, but Poland immediately became the largest filling station market in its portfolio with around 500 wells there, while the Hungarian company has fewer in Hungary in Croatia and the Czech Republic.
It is not yet known whether Orlen wants to position its new wells in the premium category, similar to the quality introduced in Poland. It should be added that domestic Lukoil wells have not been discounted at all in Romania for quite some time (as was the case in the past, when Petrotel used refinery fuel at a quasi-discount price to generate volume during the classic Lukoil period). László Geszti Under his 8-year strategic leadership – with Jenő Dori Horváth as managing director – beside him – the countless on smart development passed domestic Lukoil network standard and improvement of the service offering– mint e.g. the successful Spar launches, considered a prestige investment for sale – have polished a lot on this discount positioning of the past.
Orlen’s announcements are about how to continue and continue to grow: by 2030, the company plans to operate 3,500 filling stations, based on which the use of foreign filling stations is expected to rise to 45 percent – from the current 37 percent.