Christoph Lindenmeyer, the President of AVIA International, has personally evaluated the outcomes of the AVIA chain development in Poland. President of the Association came to Poland invited by UNIMOT – an official representative of the AVIA brand in our country.
Christoph Lindenmeyer – the President of AVIA International and Mario Tonini – The Managing Director of the Association stayed in Poland on 15-16 October this year. The guests visited, among others, the Wiskitki port where one of the biggest stations for refuelling heavy vehicles in Poland is being created. Together with Mr Adam Sikorski, the President of UNIMOT S.A. and at the same time a Member of the Management Board of AVIA International, they summarised the current works on developing the AVIA brand in Poland. Afterwards, they shared their views with the journalists during a short meeting in the Warsaw branch of UNIMOT.
– The station in Wiskitki, which will be launched in few weeks’ time made a great impression on me – said Christoph Lindenmeyer. – This is a perfect location with full transport infrastructure. I can see how well the AVIA team is working in Poland and I am convinced that it will be successful here.
– We invited UNIMOT to become a member of AVIA International at the end of 2016, and a few months later the first AVIA station was created in Poland – stated Mr Mario Tonini. – Now there are already 30 stations and new ones are planned to be launched. This confirms that the Company perfectly fulfils its obligations and is one of the most efficient companies in our Association.
Asked about the strong position of AVIA in Europe the President of the Association answered that the brand is largely based on solid foundations, that is family companies. – The backbone of AVIA create small and medium-sized family companies. Each of these companies is too small to face the challenges of the fuel and energy industry on its own. It is much easier to overcome them within one family – explained Christoph Lindenmeyer.
And there are numerous challenges in this industry: from the shrinking market of diesel oil, through electromobility, as far as alternative energy sources. – Lots of new technologies are emerging on the automotive market, e.g. hydrogen technology, but I doubt it will affect to a larger extent passenger cars – said Christoph Lindenmeyer. – Therefore, I am an optimist as far as combustion engines are concerned. We are experiencing the aftereffects of the diesel era, but I am convinced that in 20 years’ time there will be even more diesel-powered vehicles than nowadays. AVIA also plans to contribute to reducing the emission of car engine exhaust fumes, among other things, through application of a special fuel additive – nitrogen oxide.
The representatives of AVIA International devoted a lot of time to discussing the plans of AVIA brand expansion to new markets. They mentioned Ukraine and a big, white spot on the map of Europe, which are Scandinavian countries. – So far we have been trying to identify proper partners for the cooperation in these countries, we are looking for candidates – admitted Mario Tonini. – The markets of Western Europe are saturated with chains of petrol stations, e.g. in Switzerland the number of petrol stations has been decreasing significantly, so we have been looking for new opportunities also outside Europe. We are interested in the countries that are not dominated by monopolists, but where private operators are active.
The issue of fleet cards in the Polish AVIA chain also appeared during the meeting. – Undoubtedly, this is a priority issue for our team – stated Mr Adam Sikorski. – We need several more months to work on details, surely this is going to be an international card. We will introduce it in the first half of 2019.
Let us remind that until 2020 UNIMOT plans to launch 100 stations under the AVIA brand, and at the end of 2023 it would like to have a chain of 200 stations.
