Avia International

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AVIA INTERNATIONAL

logo
legal form society
founding 1960
Seat Zurich , Switzerland
management Mario Tonini
(Managing Director)
Christoph Lindenmeyer
(Executive Board President)
Branch Energy trading
Website www.avia-international.com

Avia gas station

The Avia International (proper spelling partially AVIA INTERNATIONAL ) is a in the Switzerland -based association of independent petroleum importers . Avia owns a total of 90 group and member companies in 15 European countries, which operate around 3,100 petrol stations and the majority are medium-sized ( SMEs ). This makes Avia the most widespread independent mineral oil brand in Europe. The focus of the business is on Germany with 35 member companies and more than 800 petrol stations. In addition, the organization is widespread in Switzerland as the largest and in France as the third largest petrol station flagger.

Business areas

The core areas of Avia companies are the operation of Avia petrol stations, the supply of large customers with diesel fuel, the supply of lubricants , heating oils , pellets , gas (LPG, CNG), electricity, wind and solar energy. In contrast to the large oil companies, Avia does not have its own refineries and buys its fuels from other suppliers or has them processed in third-party refineries.

history

Origins in Switzerland

In 1927, several independent Swiss importers of petroleum products organized a buying group under the name Avia in order to be able to assert themselves better alongside the then dominant multinational oil companies (“ Seven Sisters ”). The name Avia was chosen based on the term aviation because aviation fuel was also traded. From 1931 it was used as a trademark in Switzerland . Since the 1950s, medium-sized companies from other European countries have joined, with Avia expanding into these countries as well. The earliest expansion took place in France, where in addition to the automotive engineer Roger Ducrot and the building contractor André Picoty, whose respective family businesses now run the French Avia network alone, ten other entrepreneurs joined the association.

Expansion to West Germany

On May 26, 1952, the mineral oil traders Hugo Oest from Freudenstadt and Johann Baptist Wagner from Munich , whose family still operates 15 Avia petrol stations in southern Bavaria, acquired a license to use the AVIA brand from the Swiss Avia Association . In the following year the German AVIA Mineralöl-GmbH was founded, in 1956 the purchasing group AVIA Mineralöl-AG. By 1957, 14 independent petrol station operators belonged to the German Avia branch, which represented around a quarter of the total number of companies grouped under this brand.

Foundation of Avia International

Historic Avia gas pumps

Avia International was founded as an umbrella organization in 1960. At that time there were 64 Avia member companies in Europe, Avia Germany was the largest national organization. In 1962, the international Avia organization operated around 4800 filling stations in Europe. At that time, the German Avia network included 24 independent mineral oil dealers with around 1,300 filling stations. AVIA Mineralöl-AG in Munich still functions as the holding company for the German Avia national companies. This company increased its sales in the year mentioned from 39.3 to 48.3 million DM. In 1968, 25 companies belonged to the West German Avia Group.

Petro Suisse

In the first decades Avia was only active in the downstream business (petrol stations, final transport to customers) and was therefore dependent on the large corporations. In order to break away from this dependency, they wanted to set up their own Swiss oil company - like the large corporations - also in the upstream business. You would then have negotiated directly with the production countries and would have had everything in your own hands, from tankers, refineries and petrol stations. The moves in the Swiss parliament in 1972 and in 1973, the year of the oil crisis, were received positively by the Federal Council because it was concerned about the country's energy self-sufficiency. Although the name Petro Suisse had already been found, the Federal Council ultimately came to the conclusion that the oil business was too big to be financed by Switzerland. The Swiss Petroleum Association, which was formed as a founding member in 1961 with the participation of the Avia Association and which acted as a lobby for the private oil industry and advised the government on these issues, also spoke out against the creation of a state oil company in order not to expose itself to the accusation of cartel formation .

Head of Avia Germany

The management of the German AVIA Mineralöl-GmbH and the AVIA Mineralöl-AG was for many years in the hands of the German administrative lawyer and finance manager Helmut von Hummel (1910-2012), who during his work in the Reich Ministry of Economics under Hjalmar Schacht and from 1937 Hermann Göring for was responsible for German trade with Switzerland during the National Socialist era . His informal network of contacts in Switzerland originated from this time, which, as a former personal advisor and closest collaborator to the head of the NSDAP party chancellery, Martin Bormann, enabled him to enter the economy unmolested after the war. He resigned from management as chairman of the supervisory board of AVIA Mineralöl-AG in 1984 and retired.

His successor in the company management was Joachim F. Christopeit from 1980 to 2000 . The change in leadership was accompanied by a public scandal that was attached to rumors of bribery payments for profitable oil contracts with Saudi Arabia , which had led to resentment among competitors such as the Shell , BP and VEBA groups. Christopeit succeeded in settling the dispute with competitors, suppliers and agents out of court and avoiding further attention. During the rest of his term of office, Christopeit pursued the internationalization of the group structure, which until then had been mainly headed by the German headquarters in Munich. At the turn of the millennium he retired.

From 1998 Manfred Baumgartner managed the Avia companies in Germany. During his tenure, he stabilized the traditional business areas of petrol stations and mineral oil trading and expanded them through acquisitions and the acquisition of new member shareholders. According to Avia, the association has developed into a comprehensive energy provider in recent years. Since the beginning of the 2010s, individual Avia stations have been equipped with charging stations for electric cars . Manfred Baumgartner retired in 2013; He was followed as head of the Avia national organization by Holger Mark, a former manager of BayWa , who moved to Avia in April 2013.

Expansion into other countries

After the "Avia countries" Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria , Belgium and the Netherlands , in which the brand name AVIA was established before 1960, companies from various other European countries have joined the association since Avia International was founded. On November 22, 1989, Avia Spain was founded in Madrid in the form of a Spanish limited liability company, AVIA Española SL. Today Avia is represented in the Spanish market with 180 filling stations. One year later, on December 6, 1990, an Avia sales company was founded in the Czech Republic , which joined the Avia International association. The Avia national company in Poland joined the association on January 30, 1992. The Avia brand later expanded into other Eastern European countries. On November 8, 2006, Avia Hungary was founded in Budapest . In Serbia , where the Avia brand had been active earlier, on August 29, 2012, Avia Serbia was reorganized. Avia Bulgaria Association was registered in the Bulgarian Commercial Register on December 16, 2016 . The youngest country in which the Avia brand is represented is Ukraine as of 2020 .

distribution

One of around 70 Avia motorway service stations in France (2006)

The Avia brand is now represented in 15 European countries (alphabetically: Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, France, Italy , the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal , Austria, Switzerland, Serbia, Spain, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Hungary).

In 1980 there were 1,345 Avia filling stations in the Federal Republic of Germany , 454 of which were self-service. In 2011 there were 778 Avia filling stations in Germany; Avia was thus in 5th place behind Aral , Shell, Esso and Total . In January 2015, Avia was still in 5th place with 837 filling stations in Germany, just ahead of the JET brand with 792 filling stations. Avia held the same position in the German petrol station market in 2017 with 851 petrol stations.

With around 1500 filling stations, a good half of the delivery points maintained by the Avia Group are in Germany and Switzerland. In Switzerland, the number of Avia filling stations fell in line with the market trend in recent years (2016: 604 stations; 2015: 659 stations); Nevertheless, the eleven Avia member companies, which are part of the AVIA Association of Independent Swiss Importers of Petroleum Products , founded in 1927, still have the largest network in Switzerland with over 600 Avia filling stations in 2017. It includes both small automatic filling stations in rural areas and large shop filling stations with a local supply character. In addition, a nationwide network for hydrogen filling stations is to be implemented by 2023 . There are currently around 70 Avia petrol stations in Austria, most of which are operated by the Zwettl- based family business Franz Eigl Ges.mbH of the entrepreneur Rudolf Eigl (1965-2016), who also set up the Avia petrol station network in the Czech Republic in the 1990s.

Outside the German-speaking area, Avia is traditionally strongly represented in France (currently over 700 stations), whose market is geographically between the two founding members Thévenin & Ducrot Distribution SAS (eastern half of the country, headquarters Chevigny-Saint-Sauveur ) and Picoty SA (western half, headquarters in La Souterraine ) is divided. There the brand made it into third place among the French petrol station operators in 2010 with a market share of 10% behind Total (including the brands Elan and Elf ) and Carrefour . The gas station network of the two family businesses also benefited from the restructuring of the French petrol station market that began around the same year (discontinuation of numerous branded fuel stations in the countryside; Carrefour withdrew from the motorway petrol station business).

With Avia Marine, Thevenin & Ducrot operates its own ship filling station network on the Côte d'Azur with yacht filling stations in the ports of Antibes , Cannes , Cap-d'Ail , Fréjus , Juan-les-Pins , Marseille , Nice , Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat , Saint-Laurent-du-Var and Saint-Tropez and a delivery service to other Mediterranean ports. Picoty also operates AVIA boat filling stations on the French Atlantic coast.

Web links

Commons : AVIA  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Excerpt from the commercial register Avia International Commercial Register of the Canton of Zurich. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  2. ↑ Christoph Lindenmeyer at the head of AVIA International. In: moneycab - Wirtschaft - Unternehmen - Style , July 9, 2018. Accessed August 17, 2018.
  3. ↑ a b c AVIA petrol stations in Europe. Avia International website. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  4. ^ Fuels - Avia International Website of Avia International. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  5. ↑ a b c d history on the Avia Germany homepage, accessed in July 2020.
  6. ↑ a b Bruno Declairieux: Avia: les stations-service qui narguent Total. In: Capital , August 12, 2010, accessed October 25, 2016.
  7. ^ Johann Baptist Wagner GmbH, Munich: About us. Accessed July 2020.
  8. ↑ Economic news from: Die Zeit. 48/1963, November 29, 1963; accessed on October 22, 2016.
  9. ^ Daniele Ganser : Europe in the oil frenzy. The consequences of dangerous addiction . Orell Füssli publishing house, Zurich 2012, ISBN 978-3-280-05474-1
  10. ^ Monika Gisler ( ETH Zurich ): Petroleum in Switzerland. A little cultural history. Published by the Association for Economic History Studies on behalf of the Petroleum Association / Union Pétrolière (EV-UP), Zurich 2011 (online) , p. 42, 45.
  11. ↑ Obituary , in: Süddeutsche Zeitung . 3rd December 2012.
  12. ^ Memoirs of Helmut von Hummels, quoted in: Günter von Hummel: Politik /herapie. BoD , Norderstedt 2016, ISBN 978-3-8482-0846-3 , p. 47; 104 u. ö.
  13. ↑ Hansjakob Stehle : Martin Bormann in the west-east twilight. In: The time. 24/1997, June 6, 1997; accessed on October 22, 2016.
  14. ↑ Federal Archives : Holdings B 323 (cultural property) , therein: Correspondence from and with the personal assistant to Reichsleiter Martin Bormann, MR Helmut von Hummel; accessed on October 22, 2016.
  15. ↑ Supernatural Powers . In: Der Spiegel . No. 38/1981, September 14, 1981, pp. 92-99; Fear of rampage . In: Der Spiegel. Issue 18/1984, April 30, 1984, pp. 72-79.
  16. ↑ First charging station in the region. In: Schwarzwälder Bote , April 15, 2011, accessed on October 25, 2016.
  17. ↑ Manfred Baumgartner hands over to Holger Mark . In: Sprit +. February 4, 2013, accessed October 22, 2016.
  18. ↑ Extract from the commercial register AVIA ESPAÑOLA SL. Commercial Register Spain. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  19. ↑ Extract from the commercial register AVIA ČR. Commercial Register Czech Republic. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  20. ↑ Commercial register extract AVIA Serbia Association. Commercial Register of Serbia. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  21. ^ ADAC: Number of petrol stations in Germany since 1965. ADAC website. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  22. ↑ a b Current data on the petrol station market. at the EHI trade data portal. Retrieved August 17, 2018.
  23. ↑ Information on the website of Fritz Meyer Holding , a founding member of the Avia Association. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  24. ↑ Mario Graf: Socar Energy Switzerland relies on hydrogen. In: energate-messenger.ch. September 21, 2018, accessed September 30, 2018 .
  25. ^ Brigitte Lassmann-Moser: Farewell to Rudi Eigl. In: NÖN , February 3, 2016, accessed on October 25, 2016.
  26. ↑ Leo Himmelbauer: Raika and Avia rush forward: first bank in gas station. ( Memento from October 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: Wirtschafts-Blatt , November 29, 1997, accessed on October 25, 2016.
  27. ↑ a b Website of the Avia France brand , accessed on October 25, 2016.
  28. ↑ L'Association Nationale pour la Formation Automobile (ANFA), Services de l'Automobile et de la Mobilité: Observatoire des Metiers et des Qualifications. Commerce de détail de carburant (report of the ANFA association on the fuel industry). Carquefou 2012; Retrieved December 20, 2016.
  29. ↑ Avia Marine (website of Thevenin & Ducrot), accessed on December 18, 2016.