UNITI creates competence partnerships with leading companies in the petrol station sector and creates real added value for members, as well as contributing to the sustainability of the industry.
11.09.2017: UNITI Bundesverband mittelständischer Mineralölunternehmen e.V. has formed competence partnerships with leading companies in the petrol station sector. The aim of these competence partnerships is to transfer skills between partners and UNITI members, and therefore throughout the entire industry. The companies are from the petrol station technology, car washing, retail and administration sectors, and share their expertise in order to strengthen and further develop the petrol station distribution channel.
These seven competence partners are:
- Bever Innovations, B.V., Zierikzee, Netherlands – Petrol station lighting
- Otto Christ AG – Wash Systems, Memmingen – Car washing
- Concardis GmbH, Eschborn – Payment
- eurodata AG, Saarbrücken – Software-as-a-service solutions
- PWM GmbH & Co. KG, Bergneustadt – Price display
- Scheidt & Bachmann GmbH, Mönchengladbach – Checkout systems
- SONAX GmbH, Neuburg – Car maintenance
The competence partners offer first-class technical and organisational solutions for petrol station operations, including the latest sales concepts and extensive support for operational management and during product selection. Members have the opportunity to sustainably trade in a difficult market environment, and to tackle the challenges of doing so. With its competence partnerships, UNITI makes a significant contribution to maintaining the existing offering and competitive structure in the German mineral oil industry, and therefore the whole industry.
Members benefit from the expertise of their competence partners not only at meetings and through the training programmes offered by the UNITI ACADEMY, but also in their day-to-day business.
What does the competence partnership with UNITI mean for Otto Christ AG and UNITI members?
The two companies have cooperated for many years. It became increasingly clear that both companies would benefit from an even more intensive collaboration in the long term. In several cases, car washing is a major source of income for UNITI members in the petrol station sector. When faced with fierce competition, petrol stations must further professionalise their washing services. Machine technology, operating systems, washing chemicals, station marketing and service concepts are changing at an ever-faster rate. At Otto Christ AG, we are leading innovators in this sector, and can rely on a high level of expertise and development power thanks to our distinct depth of production. We can provide UNITI members with precisely this expertise as part of the competence partnership, in order to tackle future challenges.
The goals of this agreement include a transfer of skills between Otto Christ AG and UNITI members. How will that work?
Skills will be transferred in many different ways. These include the highly attractive UNITI events, at which we can give specialist talks highlighting the latest developments, challenges and trends. We also hope to use this exchange between our company and the UNITI members to focus on individual issues in regional working groups, and to offer solely tailor-made solutions based on these. A key aspect will be to expand the training programme offered by the UNITI ACADEMY. The qualification of employees at all levels is another key building block in the endeavour to optimally operate vehicle washing systems in order to achieve a greater turnover.
How many joint projects are the competence partners planning?
The petrol station technology network is rapidly gaining momentum. This also has a major impact on washing systems technology. We would like to launch a joint project in this sector, with the aim of developing standards relating to interfaces and communication technology between washing systems, operating systems, payment systems, etc.
The competence partnership also includes training for the partners and their employees. What is the concept for that?
In the car washing sector, employees often have very different roles. On the one hand, there are those employees who are responsible for washing vehicles. On the other hand, there is the petrol station management team, as well as the petrol station assistants. Each of these three areas of work has different requirements regarding the necessary expertise. Three training courses focus exclusively on these requirements, and corresponding workshops are offered. Issues including:
- Successful station marketing
- Washing operations
- Washing price quoting/washing price development
- Active selling/benefit arguments
- Complaints management
- Washing systems technology
- Maintenance and servicing
- Management tools
- Machine and system cleaning
- Feasibility study
- Site analyses
- Washing price calculation
- and many others are dealt with intensively and practically
About UNITI
UNITI Bundesverband mittelständischer Mineralölunternehmen e.V. represents around 90% of the German mineral oil industry, and combines competences in the fuel, heating and lubricants sectors. Every day, over 4.5 million customers use the approximately 6,000 street petrol stations run by UNITI member companies. Almost 75% of independent petrol stations and around 40% of street petrol stations are run by UNITI. The approximately 1,300 UNITI member companies achieve an annual turnover of around EUR 35 billion, and employ around 80,000 people in Germany.
Otto Christ AG - The Real Car Wash Factory
Requests products Inland, Export:
Phone +49 (0) 83 31 857-100, verkauf(at)christ-ag.com/wash-systems (Germany)
Phone +49 (0) 83 31 857-200, sales(at)christ-ag.com/wash-systems (International)
Fax +49 (0) 83 31 857-185
Car Care:
Phone +49 (0) 83 31 857-4880, chemie(at)christ-ag.com/wash-systems
Fax +49 (0) 83 31 857-4888
Xpress Catalog:
Phone +49 (0) 83 31 857-394, bestellung(at)christ-carwash-shop.de
Fax +49 (0) 83 31 857-495
Press:
Phone + 49 (0) 8331 857-180, mwoerle(at)christ-ag.com/wash-systems