24.11.2021
ORLEN stays on Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN
In the 2022 season, PKN ORLEN will remain as the title sponsor of the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team competing in the world’s most prestigious racing series – Formula 1. Robert Kubica, the only Polish driver in F1 history, will remain in the team. Finland’s Valtteri Bottas and China’s Guanyu Zhou, making his F1 debut, will partner Kubica on the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team for the 2022 season. The Chinese driver joining the team is an opportunity to strengthen recognition of the ORLEN brand and support the business activities of ORLEN China. The partnership will translate into tangible business results and strengthen global recognition of the ORLEN brand. Robert Kubica will also remain ORLEN’s brand ambassador as part of bilateral cooperation that includes the ORLEN Team member’s participation in endurance races.
Foreign sales already represent close to 60% of the ORLEN Group’s revenue. The Group’s strategy provides for further expansion of the retail business, whose performance is actively supported by its global sponsorship policy. Since PKN ORLEN first entered F1 and the partnership with Robert Kubica, retail LIFO-based EBITDA of the Group as a whole has been growing steadily, to PLN 3bn in 2019 and PLN 3.2bn in 2020.
‘We operate globally and so we need to be active across all areas, including when our planning marketing and sponsorship initiatives. F1 races are broadcast by 99 national television stations and watched by 400m viewers, according to Nielsen data. The media value equivalent of the television broadcasts for the ORLEN brand reached in excess of PLN 550m by November 2021. Therefore our involvement with Robert Kubica and the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team is a strategic investment for us. As a company with an international reach, we have successfully built a common marketing platform serving many of the markets in which we do business. This has paid off – in the third quarter of 2021 the ORLEN Group posted a net profit of PLN 2.9bn and increased its market shares in Slovakia and the Czech Republic,’ says Daniel Obajtek, President of the PKN ORLEN Management Board.
With its sponsorship of motorsports PKN ORLEN reaches millions of fans around the world. In the next F1 racing season, the ORLEN branding will continue to be present on the side sections of the cars, rear and front wings, halo and mirrors. It will also appear on the chest and back of the race suits, in three spots on the drivers’ helmets, and on the crew clothing, transporters, garage, and motorhome. During the 2022 season Robert Kubica will take part in four practice sessions held ahead of the races of the world’s top drivers and in pre-season testing.
‘I am delighted that ORLEN remains a partner of the Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN team for another season. This means Poland will remain present in the most prestigious motor racing competition. The upcoming year will be a big challenge for the team, and I hope it will bring a lot of excitement to Formula 1 fans,’ says ORLEN Team’s Robert Kubica.
PKN ORLEN’s collaboration with Robert Kubica is a multifaceted one. In recent months, the driver has engaged in the #DobryKierowca (#GoodDriver) campaign encouraging responsible and safe driving, a campaign promoting ORLEN Paczka, which is a network of 6,000 parcel drop-off and pick-up points, and other projects. An extremely strong rate of unaided associations of Robert Kubica with the ORLEN brand, of 70%, improves the effectiveness of the campaign run in the new business segment. Also, one in six respondents in Poland declares they visit the Group’s service stations more often because of PKN ORLEN’s sponsorship of Robert Kubica.
Robert Kubica has had a strong season. ORLEN Team WRT, with whom the Polish driver made his debut in endurance racing in April, won the European Le Mans Series. He also showed very strong F1 performance in the Dutch and Italian Grand Prix.
