Eric Kish (44), the tank officer in the Israeli army who went on to become one of the key people of the development of Rompetrol group right from the moment Dinu Patriciu recruited him ten years ago, says that now, as he steps down as retail vice-president, he leaves behind a business division ready for crisis. He is also not afraid to point out a few problems, as well.

"We have 180 franchised stations, but this segment is experiencing big liquidity problems. Approximately 25% of these partners may go bankrupt, which will show in the total as an about 3% decline in our volumes. We are trying to help them, but most have loans for other businesses in which we are not interested," Eric Kish explains. He will take over the position of vice-president for service companies and support functions of the group on April 1, a segment developed mostly outside Romania. Considering the turnover registered on Rompetrol’s distribution segment in 2008, 2.5 billion dollars, this reduction in the number of Rompetrol’s partners would mean an about 75 million-dollar decline of revenues. Rompetrol has about 450 filling stations on the Romanian market.

However, Kish says that the division he has run until now is well-prepared to face the crisis, as most of the restructuring has already been completed, along with the salary cuts or the creation of services to meet clients looking for cost reductions halfway.

"We have crisis on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We are trying to manage it as well as we can, but our advantage compared with the competition is that crisis is a way of life for Rompetrol, a modus vivendi," Kish says.

Eric Kish was brought to Rompetrol in 1998 and was one of Patriciu’s first employees. In 2001, at only 36, he took the position of chief executive officer of the Petromidia refinery, which he kept until 2005. It was during his tenure t