Will Orlen's budget brand halt its falling retail sales?

The design and the logo of the new brand will be presented on November 28. According to Puls Biznesu daily, around 30 stations marked with the white and green logo colors will appear by the end of the year. The company has already registered an Internet domain for the new brand. The establishment of the new network is part of Orlen's strategy aimed at preventing the decrease of the company's share in the retail market, which amounted to 28.6% at the end of 2004 but which fell to 26.5% in August 2005. Orlen wants to divide its existing network of 1,922 petrol stations into two segments: premium and the so-called budget (Bliska brand). The strategy envisages that around 1,000 stations will operate in the budget segment within 3-4 years. The rebranding of the stations is going to cost Orlen a substantial amount of money, with experts estimating that the cost of rebranding one station is up to zł.150,000. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 4)EB