New and important corporate move in the low-cost gas station business. Spanish coach Portobello Capital and American fund Tensile have signed an agreement for C.Acquiring and taking control of PlenoilThe largest ‘low-cost’ service station network in the Spanish market. An operation that took place just two months after Cepsa announced its entry into lower costs by acquiring Ballenoil.
The Portobello consortium and Tensile have acquired the majority stake in the Plenoil petrol station network, which has so far been held by four of its co-founders and the fifth co-founder and the current company. CEO José Rodríguez de Arellano, will maintain its shareholding package and continue to lead management.
The new partners plan to develop a strong expansion plan with the aim of doubling the size of the service station network in three steps. The number of existing gas stations will increase from 224 to at least 500 in 2027 The group, which in most cases already has locations, will also start its operations in Portugal this year.
Established in 2015, all Plenoil petrol stations operate with automatic payment at the pumps directly by the customer, and the group’s plans are to have more than 75% of all its stations have this payment facility by the end of this year. charging electric vehicles.
“After more than seven years of successful history and having positioned ourselves as a leader in the automatic service station industry, we are very proud that investors of the quality of Tensile and Portobello have decided to jointly invest again in our country and in particular in Plenoil. This will allow us to accelerate our growth in Spain and Portugal will recognize,” emphasized Plenoil CEO José Rodríguez de Arellano.
‘Low cost’ as an accelerator
Gas station networks of alternative brands are playing the leading role in the expansion of the sector in Spain. For years, almost all of the growth in the number of service stations in the Spanish market has been due to the opening of outlets of new low-cost formats, which are increasingly replacing traditional networks in the hands of large companies. companies (Repsol, Cepsa, BP, Disa or Galp).
Automatic petrol stations, independent retailers, stations affiliated with hypermarkets and supermarket chains, cooperatives… are ‘low-cost’ formats on the rise, and their increasing proliferation has led to Spain setting a new record for the number of service stations on its roads. . According to data from the Association of Petroleum Operators (AOP), an association of major oil companies, at the end of 2022, when record fuel prices were seen in the midst of the energy crisis, there were 12,084 service stations in operation in Spain.
When the Felipe González Government ended Campsa’s monopoly in 1992, there were just under 6,000 service stations in Spain. After three decades of almost uninterrupted growth – except for very rare slight annual declines during this period, the last of which were in 2005 and 2019 – the gas station park has now doubled in size.
Cepsa enters into low cost
The Spanish petrol station market is now split in two. Alternative brands (independent brands, hypermarkets and cooperatives) currently account for 49% of stocks national gas station, all major groups participating in the AOP employer association have once again lost their outlets. Cepsa, the second largest oil company in the Spanish market, took a strategic step to break this trend and achieved this by joining forces with ‘low cost’.
Last November, Cepsa announced the acquisition of Ballenoil’s low-cost gas station network of approximately 200 service stations. The oil giant will thus add more than 2,000 service stations to the Iberian Peninsula (1,500 locations in Spain and more than 300 in Portugal). Cepsa plans to retain the Ballenoil brand and continue with its low-cost business model, encouraging its growth with the aim of reaching Plenoil’s target level of 500 Ballenoil stations by 2027.