30.03.22; Global Convenience Store Focus
OMV, the international, integrated oil, gas and chemicals company, headquartered in Vienna, Austria, is strengthening its convenience retail and fuel proposition.
Last month (February) OMV opened its first OMV Fastlane, an unmanned petrol station and convenience store format, which is contactless and completely digitised.
The business is also partnering with the supermarket Rewe to offer Billa branded groceries in OMV’s VIVA convenience stores in a three store trial.
Both initiatives respond to the growing consumer need for ultra convenience and multiple product choices in singular locations.
With a focus on downstream activity – OMV operates three refineries in Europe and 2,100 filling stations in 10 European countries with four different brands – the new concept store and supermarket collaboration is being spearheaded by OMV’s Retail business division and Gernot Gollner, head of OMV’s petrol station business in Austria.
Food expertise
Gollner, who joined OMV 16 years ago, is not your archetypal petrol forecourt executive who has enjoyed a long career in oil and gas.
Quite the opposite in fact.
“My background is quite a creative one,” he says. “As a stereotypical Austrian I tried to get a profession as a skier in my young days. Then I worked as a confectioner and pastry chef in the well-known cafes in Vienna and also Dubai.”
Gollner went on to join the international event caterer, Do & Co, which supplies premium airlines and has been responsible for catering at Formula 1 for more than 27 seasons. He continued his career in food at Metro, where he worked in the wholesaler’s fresh foods department for three years before arriving at OMV.
“I’ve worked with food and I know about food. That’s where I am coming from,” he smiles.
OMV Fastlane
The new OMV Fastlane format has been opened at an existing site in Linz in partnership with start-up BistroBox, which offers a 24-hour self-serve pizzeria concept and UNIBox, which is part of the Austrian supermarket chain Unimarkt.
While OMV already operates unmanned sites under a discount fuel brand, this is the first to feature the OMV Fastlane brand and offers OMV’s premium, best in class fuels plus lubricants.
The contactless, self service experience continues in-store with BistroBox and UNIiBox.
BistroBox’s pizzeria offer is based on vending machine technology and allows customers to bake an oven-fresh pizza via touchscreen ordering.
According to Gollner, it’s great quality and the vending concept has been well designed and implemented – it resembles a traditional pizza oven but with digital displays. In addition to providing stone-baked pizza in just two minutes, the vending concept offers snacks, drinks, coffee and tobacco products alongside.
The UNIBox convenience store has been developed in tandem with Austrian software company Syreta.
Shoppers register via an app to gain access to the shop, where they can select from a range of over 900 products for their daily needs plus organic lines and checkout via the app.
According to Gollner, the concept isn’t as technically sophisticated as Amazon Go or Rewe’s unmanned store in Cologne, but it’s well executed with controls to check the temperature of the chillers, the store’s ventilation and illumination. There’s also digital signage, music/audio and video surveillance. The autonomous store is also integrated with UniBox’s ordering system so that the retailer knows when a product has been sold.
“For the customer, the whole journey is self-served and unmanned,” Gollner says. “The station has been very well received,” he adds. “The customer reaction is very positive. It’s a 24/7 site offering premium fuels with a unique proposition that is catching the customer’s attention. Plus, it’s nicely designed as well.”
Gollner concedes there is still some work to do on the entry process to the UniBox part of the site. Currently customers have to download the app and upload their payment method before they can enter the shop. Going forward, shoppers should be enabled to register with their debit or credit to make access easier.
Another OMV Fastlane is already being planned with the same BistroBox and UNIBox partnerships. Gollner reveals several more are being considered but it’s not yet clear if both initial partners will be on board. “It’s about feasibility,” he says.
International inspiration
Gollner, like many leading convenience and fuel retail executives, looks outside his own market for inspiration and fresh ideas. Last week, for instance, he joined Insight’s Dublin Convenience Market Focus.
“Learning from other brands and countries is extremely valuable,” he says. “It’s important to take things with you that you believe your customer and culture will be ready for and try out. You don’t always know if they will work because markets are not 100% comparable but you can try out things.”
The trend for fuel retailers to partner with supermarket corporations is a trend Gollner has observed elsewhere and is now implementing in Austria.
“With VIVA we have a very strong own brand. It’s the best shop but now we want to partner with supermarkets and corporations to introduce more groceries and fresh products,” he says.
OMV has already teamed up with Spar in Hungary and now the company is partnering with Rewe to sell Billa branded products in its VIVA convenience stores in Austria. Three pilot stores currently offer the extended range but will be increased to seven within the next two months. “We are starting the pilot right now to see if it will be accepted by the customer. It’s far too early to say but we are positive and it’s important to be really testing a lot right now,” Gollner maintains.
New technologies and offers
While most aspects of normal life have resumed following the Covid pandemic, some consumer behaviors have stuck. The move away from cash to plastic has continued, for example, and smart payments solutions via mobile are increasing although remain quite small overall.
OMV partners with Austria’s largest loyalty programme – the JÖ-Bonus Club. It has over 4m members out of a total Austrian population of 9m. The programme includes an award-winning integrated payment solution. Gollner reports it is being used more often although the overall participation is still on a low scale.
Like elsewhere, Covid disrupted sites in transit stations and on highways but benefited stores in city locations. It drove new delivery concepts also and OMV participated in this trend. A cooperation with a food delivery service was launched in 2020 to serve customers with convenience food when it was unable to open and operate seating areas in stores and restaurants.
Coffee is another success story for OMV. Gollner reports the business runs several sites with premium coffee machines, including a barista proposition. But it’s tailored to the Austrian market, he adds. When a customer decides to enjoy their coffee in the cozy seating area of the VIVA bistro, it will be served in a traditional way: nicely presented in a ceramic cup with a silver spoon and a glass of water served on a tray. “It’s going the extra mile,” he says.
The business is also expanding its capabilities to take advantage for the growth in e-vehicle charging, leveraging its strong retail position in CEE. Investing more than EUR 400 mn by 2030, OMV will offer more than 2,000 e-charging points by 2030 at highway and transit route filling stations, plus around 17,000 office wall-box charging points by 2030.
“We want to be the leading integrated supplier for sustainable fuels so we have to do more. As the market leader in our country, we are investing in EV charging, which is important for the convenience business,” he says.
As is gastronomy and food, Gollner adds. “We believe there is still growth to be done.”
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