Orlen looks to foreign markets to expand retail network

Lithuania looks to be the most difficult prospect as Russia's Lukoil currently dominates the market there, while Orlen subsidiary Mazeikiu owns just 34 stations. "Mazeikiu controls 90% of the Lithuanian wholesale fuel market and only 4% of the retail market," stated Wojciech Heydel, Orlen's deputy president responsible for sales, adding that Orlen wants to expand the Mazeikiu network through acquisitions and increase its share in the market to 15-20% by 2012. In Germany, Orlen is restructuring and expanding its network of 523 stations. "We want to increase our share in the northern German market from 7% to 10%, which means that our network should expand to around 700 stations," stated Heydel. Orlen's Benzina network in the Czech Republic is also going to be expanded from 11.5% to 15%. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 8-9) E.B.