Pirelli, Rosneft expand retail co-op pact in Russia

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (June 25, 2015) — Russia's Rosneft Oil Co. and Pirelli Tyre S.p.A. have agreed to expand their two-year-old cooperation agreement to encompass the possibility of adding mobile tire-changing stations to their still nascent effort to build a network of Pirelli-branded tire centers at Rosneft filling stations.

Rosneft and Pirelli's cooperation dates to early 2013.

The first “PZero Platinum” store opened in December 2013 at a Rosneft filling station in Sochi, Russia, which hosted the 2014 Winter Olympics. The partners said they plan to open as many as 200 tire stores by 2019.

Rosneft Chairman Igor Sechin and Pirelli Tyre CEO Marco Tronchetti Provera signed the contract extension during the recent St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The parties said the mobile tire-changing concept would be for “seasonal use.”

The expanded agreement should boost the stores' sales volume through increased cross-selling, the parties said, and should stimulate customer loyalty. The project also should generate additional operational profit for Rosneft thanks to the “advantageous financial scheme of cooperation.”

Pirelli and Rosneft already had expanded the scope of this agreement once before — in May 2014 — to include joint work on a “Safe road” marketing initiative.