Unhappy gas stations owners threaten to abandon PKN

Approximately 300 gas stations currently part of the PKN Orlen (PKN) network are planning to end their association with the Polish fuel distributor if it does not renegotiate its contracts with non-PKN owned stations. Station owners have been increasingly unhappy with the company's management board. According to their representatives, the board of the Plock-based company did not fulfill contract conditions and displayed preferential treatment to stations directly owned by PKN. The representatives' main accusations had to do with the lack of promised preferential prices on fuel purchases and access to the Vitay loyalty program. According to Miroslaw Kulak, head of the Review Committee of the National PKN Orlen Patron Stations' Association, the stations will ask PKN to renegotiate the contracts. Should this not yield any results, the stations will cancel their agreements with PKN. "We want to establish a network of independent fuel stations founded by the stations that leave PKN," Kulak was quoted as saying by Puls Biznesu. PKN does not agree with the accusations and says that their fuel is sold at preferential prices which depend, however, on the quantity of the purchase. Additionally, PKN representatives stated that the current Vitay program terms are advantageous to their patron stations. (Puls Biznesu, p. 4) P.J.