PKN Orlen's gas station sale and lease strategy questioned

PKN Orlen has announced it intends to sell 153 and lease 73 of its oldest and least profitable gas stations. Most of those affected are situated in regions with poor economic prospects and where, in some cases, further operation of a gas station has been excluded by local development strategies. "These stations are unprofitable and their yearly sales are lower than one million liters," said Jaroslaw Tyc, vice-president of PKN Orlen. As Puls Biznesu points out, this makes finding a buyer a difficult task. So far, out of 53 stations offered only 22 have found a new owner. The sell-off has not been greeted enthusiastically by labor unions, either, who refer to PKN Orlen's decision as a "hasty sale". Former head of the Oil Processing Industry Center (CPN) Jerzy Matyska is also unconvinced, describing the sale or lease of the stations as an impractical solution, since promising stations should be kept and economically unsound ones shut down. (Puls Biznesu, p. 3) M.K.