ALPET, a leader in Albanian fuel station market, seeks to expand

TIRANA, Jan 5 – It is good to see other countries’ newspaper writing about businesses in Albania.
Turkey’s Zaman wrote recently about a Turkish business in Albania – Altınbaş Oil & Trade Corp. (ALPET), reporting it has become the largest fuel supply company in Albania, with a 30 percent market share in the country based upon 2008 figures.
ALPET began operating in Albania in January 2005 and now has a 50 million euro annual turnover. ALPET was the seventh largest company in Albania in 2007.
In an exclusive interview with the Anatolia news agency in December, general manager İbrahim Aktoz said ALPET had chosen to locate in Albania because relations between Turkey and Albania have roots dating back 500 years, as well as for its geographical location. Albania is a door through which Balkan states can open up to the world via the Adriatic Sea with 450 kilometers of coastline, the longest stretch in the Balkans, he explained.
Aktoz said ALPET had some 100 fuel stations throughout the country.
“ALPET is eager to become a Balkan energy company based in Albania,” he said, adding that all 510 staff members employed at their gas stations in the country are Albanian. Aktoz said his company has chosen Albania as its base for expanding into the rest of the region.
“We will enter other Balkan markets in 2009, and the first place we want to step into is Kosovo, because it was the Kosovars who knocked on our door and asked us to come and invest in their country, and we accepted gladly,” he explained.