OREANDA-NEWS. December 19, 2011. The company’s retail executives told a press conference held in a Wild Bean Cafe, a new pilot project the company is currently implementing, of its preliminary 2011 results and 2012 plans, reported the press-centre of TNK-BP.

The preliminary results suggest that TNK-BP’s 2011 retail sales are expected to go up by 25% vs. last year and reach USD 8.8bln, EBITDA is expected to increase by over 13% and reach USD 649mln. Next year the company is planning to invest up to USD 350mln in retail projects, which is 12.5% higher than this year.

In 2011, TNK-BP significantly expanded its retail network investing over USD 300mln in the construction of new sites and is planning further expansion of its presence in the regions where it operates. It already has 110 sites operating under the BP brand. The Company is active developing new regions, e.g. in 2011, the number of BP-branded sites in St. Petersburg was practically doubled; new BP sites are planned to be built in Rostov and Nizhniy Novgorod. The company has successfully launched four BP motorway service stations on the M10 federal motor-road, another five, on M1 and M5, will be commissioned by year end in the Smolensk and Moscow regions. New TNK sites are also being built; currently the TNK network is 664 sites strong.

In 2011, branded-fuel sales went up significantly with the share of TNK Pulsar and BP Ultimate reaching 40% of total fuel sales. Likewise, the sales of BP Ultimate Diesel launched in March have much exceeded the first-year plans. Therefore, the company is planning to launch TNK-branded Pulsar Diesel shortly.

The company is active developing loyalty instruments. Starting 1 October, TNK retail customers are being offered the Carbon card. Being a full-fledged card of the MasterCard payment system, Carbon accumulates points which can be used towards new purchases. Since the card was launched, it has already been acquired by over 300 000 customers. Transactions involving the use of the card have already reached 12% of the networks trade turnover.

According to Alexander Nesterov, TNK-BP Vice President, in 2011 the company gave special attention to developing the non-fuel sector of TNK-BP’s retail business. “Current sales of merchandise and services are growing at a faster pace than oil product sales,”- Mr. Nesterov noted. “Non-fuel offer sales at the BP sites are already in excess of 25% of the total sales. We are aiming at bringing this indicator up to 50%”. To achieve such high results, the company is opening stand-alone Wild Bean Cafes in Moscow, which previously existed only as part of BP service stations. “This will enable TNK-BP,” - Mr. Nesterov went on to say, “to develop as a customer-service leader. We are looking for new standards for site personnel performance. I am convinced that the competencies acquired by our employees in the catering business will bring our site efficiency to a new level. By year end, we are going to open five Wild Bean Cafes in different areas of Moscow”.