Europe's second biggest oil company, Shell, decided not to sell its LPG business in Romania, which yields a better profit margin than that of some filling station chains.
"Shell is determined to stay here and expand. We are interested in taking our business further here, in investing and making money. Gaining market share by expanding the customer portfolio on the three segments of the market is the first target of my term," says Gabriel Stoicescu, 37, general manager of Shell Gas Romania. He took the reigns of Anglo-Dutch giant's operations in April last year.
One of the most important decisions Stoicescu has made since his arrival here was to change the management team.
"When I came, there were 10 managers. Too many people in the management team does not help communication between the various personnel layers in a firm," says Stoicescu. "I cut down the number of people to five by merging two positions into one. Out of a vertical structure, I got a horizontal one. People who were replaced got other positions, so there were no layoffs," explains Shell Gas Romania official.
Moreover, Shell Gas Romania now has a 100% Romanian team, says Gabriel Stoicescu.
Shell Gas Romania is a joint venture between Shell Gas (55%) and Romania's biggest company, Petrom (45%). Last year, Shell's Romanian arm derived net income worth 4.3m euros, up 80% year-on-year. At the same time, the firm saw its turnover advance by 25%, to 63.7m euros.
Shell entered Romania in 1992, when it massively invested in the development of a major filling station network. In parallel, it embarked on exploration & production operations in Transylvania basin, but met with failure.
The third direction Shell channelled its investments into was the LPG market. Shell decided to withdraw from the petrol station market because of the losses it posted each year and the bu
