ORLEN racing to 3,500 fuel stations on Europe retail growth
Following acquisitions in Austria, Germany, Slovakia and Hungary, Polish energy group PKN ORLEN’s fuel retail outlets outside of Poland have surged by almost a third over the past year.
ORLEN currently has 1,514 service stations outside its home base, reflecting a substantial increase of 337 since the end of 2022. Finalisation of an additional 60-plus station purchase in Hungary intended before April caps the group’s dramatic expansion in Europe.
ORLEN has set a strategic target of growing its fuel sales network to 3,500 sites across seven countries in Europe by mid-2024, up nearly 350 in just 12 months.
CEO Daniel Obajtek said that constant dealmaking matched by swift rebranding efforts has cemented ORLEN’s positioning amid fierce regional competition. He cited leveraging financial scale, experienced teams and customer loyalty accelerating renovation to meet the group’s standards as competitive differentiators against rivals.
The chief executive added that bringing existing EV chargers to all stations and continuing buildouts support decarbonisation goals, complementing its conventional and biofuels activity. Germany stands as ORLEN’s largest foreign market with more than 600 sites. Its most recent acquisition, completed in June 2023, involved the purchase of 17 self-service stations in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse from OMV.
ORLEN is actively rebranding its stations in the German market, with almost 100 sites expected to operate under the ORLEN brand by the end of February. Moreover, plans are in place to increase the number of service stations with EV charging infrastructure in Germany to more than 430 within the next two years.
Presently, the ORLEN station network comprises 3,442 sites in seven countries in Central and Eastern Europe. More than half of these locations feature Stop Cafe or Star Connect (in Germany) facilities, where motorists can enjoy a wide range of meals, snacks and hot drinks, and buy groceries. In 2023, ORLEN opened Stop Cafes in more than 160 locations in Poland alone. As many as 60% of its service stations in the domestic market have already adopted this format.
Observers say the speed of completed transactions like acquiring Austria’s Turmöl network, transforming PKN’s station count and 10% market share literally overnight is attention grabbing. But they caution that maintaining commercial momentum depends on how smoothly it integrates such disparate assets and cultures.
