Federal Association of Independent Petrol Stations

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Federal Association of Independent Petrol Stations and Independent German Mineral Oil Dealers V.

logo
legal form registered association
founding September 26, 1961 (merger, previously with a different name)
Seat Bonn
management Board:
Thomas Grebe
Managing Director:
Axel von Billow
Managing Director:
Stephan Zieger
Branch mineral oil
Website bft.de

bft petrol station in Mannheim

The Federal Association of Independent Petrol Stations and Independent German Mineral Oil Dealers e. V. (abbreviated bft ) is a registered association that represents the interests of its members, free petrol stations from Germany.

old logo of free gas stations

tasks

The association publicly represents the political interests of non-group petrol stations. He is publicly committed to fair competitive conditions. It also advises its members on legal issues and matters relating to petrol station operations. A current example is the market transparency office, where the bft also advised and informed non-members. The association also acts as a price reporter. In order to be perceived as a uniform brand, the bft issues design guidelines that petrol station operators can use as a guide. The bft logo consists of the letters bft and orange-white lines.

Members

The association has 501 members with 2,337 filling stations (as of January 15, 2015). The association is divided into 6 national groups:

  • North: Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Hamburg, Bremen
  • West: North Rhine-Westphalia
  • Middle: Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse, Saarland
  • Southwest: Baden-Württemberg
  • South: Bavaria
  • East: Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, Thuringia

Together with other partner associations of the medium-sized mineral oil and energy trade, the bft is part of the umbrella organization MEW Mittelständische Energiewirtschaft Deutschland e. V., Berlin.

history

At the end of the 1950s there were already 1,000 free petrol stations with a total fuel turnover of 12 percent in Germany. In order to counteract the economic pressure of the large corporations (increase of the sales price up to delivery stops), two interest groups were founded independently of each other in 1959 in Darmstadt and Munich with the same title: “Verband Freier Tankstellen e. V. "The purpose of the Darmstadt statutes was:" Strengthening and securing the independent existence of the members "and" the joint purchase of mineral oil products and all goods required for the service station business of the comrades ". At the beginning of 1960, the Munich Association founded a subsidiary in Cologne. On September 26, 1961, the two associations merged to form the “Federal Association of Free Gas Stations” with the Darmstadt office. When it was founded, the greatest goal was to “secure the supply of its members”, which was secured by opening up cheap purchasing sources for its members and by creating purchasing organizations. “Kirol-Tank-GmbH” was one of them that concluded long-term contracts with refineries and operated its own warehousing. In this way, the free petrol stations were able to guarantee a price difference to the group petrol stations even in times of scarce oil. Since April 1, 1981, the bft has been based in Bonn.

To promote the company's image, the black and white association symbol “Freie T”, based on a coat of arms or shield, was registered in 1961 to give the petrol stations something with which they could appear uniformly. In the early 1970s, the background of the coat of arms turned orange.

As a result of the "Six Day War" in June 1967, the Arab oil-producing countries, including Libya , imposed an embargo on all states supporting Israel . The shortage of supply resulted in a drastic rise in prices. There were supply bottlenecks among the bft petrol stations, but none of the petrol stations had to be “dry”, which was due, among other things, to the crisis management and the solidarity of the members.

From 1972 onwards, the consumer post was published every three months , a magazine with information from the industry for petrol station operators.

The challenges were the oil crises in 1973 and 1979, which fueled the recession in Germany and other countries. As a result of the Yom Kippur War in October 1973, the countries of Algeria , Iraq , Iran , Qatar , Libya , Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates , which are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), cut their production by 5 percent to avoid political pressure This led to a dramatic rise in prices: a barrel of crude oil (159 liters), which was traded at 3 US dollars before the crisis, now had to be paid for 5 US dollars, and in 1974 even 12 US dollars. In Germany, due to the OPEC embargo, the Sunday driving ban was introduced on four Sundays in 1973 in order to save oil. The first Gulf War between Iraq and Iran, which ran from 1978 to 1988, resulted in the second, shorter oil crisis of this decade. The barrel of crude oil was $ 38. Another brief oil crisis occurred in the 1990s, caused by the second Gulf War.

In 1983, the bft board member Franz Förster organized the first bft fair together with eft (purchasing company for free petrol stations), the “Tankstelle & Mittelstand” trade fair, which is now supported by the association and organized by eft.

In the mid-1980s, the logo was adapted, orange stripes and white areas should exude friendliness. Since 1990 there has been a registered trademark “bft” alongside the “Freie T” sign.

The bft was involved in the negotiations for the privatization of Autobahn Tank & Rast GmbH at the end of the 1990s.

In 2000, the industry's biggest price war to date broke out. The trigger was the DEA at the time , which was later taken over by Shell. DEA introduced the Payback discount card . Several competitors then lowered their petrol station sales price below that of DEA, as they viewed the discount granted with the Payback card as undercutting. In the summer of 2000, customers in Germany were able to buy fuels for less than the cost price. This is where the Federal Cartel Office intervened. The bft provided the Federal Cartel Office with lists of price surveys. A process has been initiated to ban sales below cost.

In 2007 an office was opened in Berlin, from where the general manager Axel Graf Bülow works. The seat of the association is still in Bonn.

Purchasing company Freier Tankstellen mbH

Against the background of the 1973 oil crisis and the associated supply crisis, members of the association founded the Freier Tankstellen mbH (eft) purchasing company in 1974. Goal: The organization of a joint strategic purchasing. Since then, eft has been cooperating with companies in the capital goods industry, trade and service industries. For free petrol stations, it bundles partners with attractive conditions and high-quality products from all relevant areas of the petrol station market. She advises in the business areas of gas station construction and technology, commercial car wash and shop individually and through special publications. In addition, the eft is responsible for advertising and marketing. It takes on the poster and image advertising for bft-flagged petrol stations and has been publishing the industry magazine TANKSTOP since 2013 .

Trade fair gas station & medium-sized companies

In 1983 the eft organized the first shopping fair for bft members on the company premises of the bft chairman Franz Förster, at the company Förster in Hanau. The event took place every two years until 1993 in Hanau and developed into an important performance show for medium-sized petrol station companies. In 1995 the trade fair was redesigned and took place under the name Tankstelle & Mittelstand as an industry fair for the entire German petrol station medium- sized sector until 2001 in Hennef / Sieg. With the event in 2003, the trade fair moved to Münster.

Climate protection initiative KlimaBonus

The association is involved in climate protection with the Automobile Club of Germany (AvD) and the reforestation company global-woods with the KlimaBonus initiative. The initiative consists of an information campaign and the sale of voluntary CO 2 certificates.

Web links

Individual evidence

Brochure for the 50th anniversary of the Federal Association: 50 years of the Federal Association of Independent Petrol Stations and Independent German Mineral Oil Dealers. 2009.