BP Polska, the British oil major’s subsidiary in Poland, said recently that its lubricant sales in the country have begun rebounding after a drop-off earlier this year and that it hopes to see them return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year.
“During the first eight months of 2020, we have already fully [rebounded from] the losses in the lubricant market caused by the coronavirus [pandemic] in the first quarter and the beginning of the second quarter,” BP Polska President Bogdan Kucharski told the Money.pl business news portal last week.
Sales of BP’s lubricants during the early stages of the pandemic in Poland recorded a slump and dropped “several dozen percent”, he said. BP did not respond to questions from Lube Report by press time.
Sales of fuels, at BP’s filling stations in Poland dropped in similar fashion.
“The fuel sales dropped several dozen percent on average. We rebounded relatively quickly, and even now, we observe better days compared to last year. With no other surprises in the economy, we expect to permanently return to the pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year and take the normal upward trend in 2021, though at a slightly lower starting point,” Kucharski said.
BP’s core business in Poland is a chain of 579 retail fuel stations. The group is also active in the area of fuels and lubricants wholesale supply, and its Castrol-branded motor oils are among the most popular automotive products in Poland. BP’s operations in Poland date back from 1991. During this period, the company has invested over U.S. $1.5 billion in the country and employs almost 5,000 people.