SPAR Express at Avia petrol stations ?

Wpis dostępny jest także w języku: polski

Within the cooperation between SPAR Group and Unimot, a total of five SPAR Express stores will launch at the Avia stations. The first one has already appeared in Poznan and another launch is still planned in 2021, while the remaining three units will open in early 2022.

SPAR has not yet revealed the next three pilot locations. All stores will be open seven days a week, also on non-trading Sundays. They will offer a typical assortment for bus stop stores as well as the Bean Tree Cafe food and coffee corner (already known from other SPAR outlets). This is worth emphasising, because the stores at Avia stations have been implementing their own catering concept Eat&Go for about a year and a half.

In Poland, partnerships between retail chains and gasoline companies are nothing new. However, just a few cooperative ventures have proven to be effective and long-lasting. Division of operational tasks, sharing personal know-how with another organization, and agreeing on income and expense distribution are all difficulties that make this form of collaboration tough. Although several major petroleum businesses, such as Carrefour, Auchan, and Zabka, have chosen to develop their own shop model. Zabka launched the trial in November at a Rakieta station; Easy Auchan shops began at BP stations a year ago, and by the end of the year, there will be nine of them. Carrefour is farther along in the development of this model, working with Total and non-network service stations. It had over 80 stores in such locations a year ago, including roughly 100, and is developing more. In Poland, Avia owns and operates 85 gas stations.

According to a study by the Polish Oil Industry and Trade Organization, Total had 38 of them at the end of the previous quarter, BP had 563, and Rakieta had less than ten. Orlen, with 1.8 thousand stations, is the market leader, and some of them have their own O! stores.

Food offer at petrol stations is getting wider and wider

The introduction of the Sunday trading ban provision was an impulse for the largest petrol stations operating on the Polish market. Brands such as PKN Orlen, Shell, BP, Lotos are eager to take advantage of the opportunity, and the networks, in turn, hope to enter a new distribution channel. PKN Orlen, the largest player on the market, has a margin of approximately 30% on non-fuel sales, half of which is for gastronomy. The increasing share of revenues from convenience stores is reflected in the strategy of PKN Orlen. Shell, on the other hand, has achieved double-digit growth in sales of non-fuel products and services in recent years. The plans until 2025 include increasing the share of non-fuel sales to half of the planned revenues

PMR’s view

Stores at fuel stations are divided into two types: stores of the station owner with a limited range of products and Easy Auchan points with a larger selection. The emergence of such stores is in line with the growing convenience trend of being close to the customer and meeting their basic, often impulse, shopping needs – for example, while filling up the car. The chain is small and its development is limited by the number of available petrol stations. Therefore, it is unlikely that thousands of similar outlets will open, but as the competition develops, other chains will probably explore this structure. In addition to stores on housing estates or in office buildings, this is a new distribution route for retailers and also a form of promotion, as some consumers may encounter a given chain for the first time during a visit to a fuel station.