[ad_1]
What effect did the coronavirus epidemic have on the circulation of Mol’s wells?
In recent years, well rotation has increased, people have traveled more and more and freight traffic has also increased. We had a very good start to the year until the pandemic broke out, but after the quarantine period, the traffic dropped rapidly. It was the lowest point in early April.
How big was the decline?
In Hungary as a whole it is 30 to 35 percent. As summer approached, it started to grow very slowly, but then returned to normal in late August. Now, however, there is a border blockade again and people are beginning to be more careful. One that has a big impact on traffic is the flow of goods – merchants, manufacturing companies, and the entire country all aim to make it run as smoothly as possible. The other is the number of tourists who come to Hungary: this year, just as we did not go, they did not come to us either.
Domestic tourism, on the other hand, was significant, especially in Lake Balaton, but this could not compensate for the defection of foreign tourists domestically.
It is also important if there is a school or if people work from home or go to work. If people don’t start the car in the morning, they are obviously not in traffic. If life does not stop, we will consume more than a kilometer. In the coming weeks and months, there is a risk that we will travel less.
Mol has also entered the disinfectant market with a new product. Where did the basic idea for Hygi come from?
In a pandemic, the disinfectant is one of the most important means of control and, due to its lack, there was a high demand in the spring. Since disinfectant is an alcoholic product, similar to winter windshield washer fluid,
With another recipe, we were able to switch our production line to disinfectant production relatively easily and quickly.
We managed to obtain raw materials in cooperation with the authorities and other companies. And colleagues were very dedicated, in cooperation with operational staff, we have been supplying more than 2.5 million liters of hand and surface disinfectants to institutions on the first line of defense: hospitals, public services, transportation companies. . Our customers also had access to the products, since we are throughout the country, there are 467 Mol wells in Hungary, which are constantly open.
As demand for disinfectants and masks increased, prices for these products soared. Did you experience an increase in the price of raw materials? What was Mol’s business policy in this area?
We established fairly strict rules from the beginning: the margin we apply to our products is the same in all cases.
We do not start with additional prices.
However, when buying the raw material, we saw that in several cases the pencil was still thick, and this caused the final consumer price to be high. We do not use crisis prices, but rather we seek to provide our customers with a Multipont card or the Mol Go application access to these products at a discount. This obviously has a business benefit as well, as anyone who’s noticed will appreciate it.
How are workers and customers protected during an epidemic?
There is a protocol of what should be cleaned and disinfected every hour. The filling gun is very important in this regard, as many people have access to it, the same goes for sinks and all surfaces that customers come into contact with, they must be cleaned at least every hour. We commissioned more than 14,000 deep disinfections through an external company. We install plexiglass walls for the cash registers at all of our service stations, and we provide all our colleagues with a mask and rubber gloves upon request. We also provide gloves for our clients. We have installed Hygi shelves in all service stations, where those who enter the store can sanitize their hands free of charge; we also don’t want to eliminate them in the future. In the epidemic situation, our sensitivity and expectations related to hygiene have increased and we must take into account the needs and safety of our customers. Our own business interests also dictate that we do everything we can to prevent the epidemic.
How much does all this cost to Molra?
If you only look at the Hungarian service station network, the hundreds of millions of guilders we spend on hygiene as an additional cost.
Were the wells closed due to the impact of the epidemic?
We prepare for it, but in the end we don’t close any. However, the opening hours were changed at 168 locations. The number of transactions was significantly reduced, by 30 percent, which means that we had to optimize our operations. We have been careful, since we have thousands of colleagues, to be able to continue maintaining the jobs. The opening hours were what we rather modified to stay there everywhere.
How do you prepare for the second wave?
The second wave of the epidemic is different from the first. An important strategic objective for the entire Mol Group is to ensure its proper functioning. In addition to the commercial interests of the company, we also have a national and regional responsibility, since we have a total of 1,933 service stations in the region. We have two principles: the health of our employees, our customers and the continuity of our operations. We are now following an active and dynamic protection strategy: we work with strict precautions: mandatory use of a mask, 1.5 meters away, regular hand washing. We maintain a degree of flexibility, we do not establish rigid principles to be able to react swiftly to changes in the situation.
As long as production companies produce and retail is open, we serve our customers.
We do not want to impose restrictions on this.
What do they experience from customers?
As more news comes in, buyers respond to them in a completely natural human way. I think people are perhaps more disciplined now than in spring, more people wear masks, pay more attention to following the rules, but it also seems that if the virus puts us at less risk, we want to live a normal and full life again in that moment. If life were to return to normal next summer, people would want to make up for missed vacations, travel, and commuting. We will probably bring hand sanitizer, we will probably stop in places where there is more hygiene. It is usually observed in times of crisis if we push back consumption, then this pendulum swings, so I’m sure we’ll travel a lot.
What usage data have Limo and Bubi produced in the recent past?
In the spring, curfew restrictions had the biggest impact on mobility habits. However, after the emergency, our services operated with even higher utilization than in the previous period. I think,
One consequence of the pandemic will be that we will use a much healthier combination of public transport, driving, cycling, skateboarding, etc., the sharing economy in general.
As a result of the epidemic, we can go through longer evolutionary stages, we can take faster development steps. I think at Mol, we really see this as an opportunity.
How do you see the situation of the oil industry in the shadow of the coronavirus?
The oil market has changed dramatically: after the outbreak of the pandemic, supply was accompanied by low demand, which made oil very cheap. There was a day when oil prices went down for a few minutes, which is very extreme. Prices have changed dramatically, but are now above $ 40 again, and experts say no big changes are expected now. Refinery margins (margins) have become much tighter in the recent period, which is why oil companies have had to befriend the lower profitability of this type of activity. At Mol by 2030, we want to achieve a consumer services EBITDA of 30 percent of Mol Group’s profits. We have already achieved this now, thanks to this special situation, and we want to maintain this relationship in the future, even after the market position of exploration-production (upstream) and refining-wholesale (downstream) has improved.
[ad_2]
