Press Release

PRAHA, 13 June - The offer of fresh, fast refreshment may be used by drivers visiting one of the newly reconstructed BENZINA plus premium gas stations. The refreshment services offer is one of the key elements of the new business strategy of the owner of the largest gas stations chain, BENZINA. Therefore, there will be fast food restaurants developed in most of the premium gas stations. In addition to the high quality refreshment, BENZINA restaurants will also focus on coffee quality. BENZINA cooperates with several major suppliers in order to secure its high quality.

„On the highways, we would like to rely primarily on cooperation with the renowned restaurant chain operators, such as Autogrill. There are currently two BENZINA plus gas stations with Autogril restaurants," says executive of BENZINA, Martin Durčák.

BENZINA will upgrade 78 gas stations by the end of this year, this number will exceed 100 a year later. Based on the space available at each of the gas stations, some of the following types of restaurants are already being developed:

• SNACK minute offering fresh baguettes and pastry from own production,
• BISTRO minute where drivers may choose from both warm meals and fresh pastry;
• RESTAURANTS operated by companies specialized in catering facilities administration
• CAFÉ minute - the smallest module offering high quality espresso.

Autogrill is the first multinational company with which BENZINA agreed on cooperation of restaurants at its gas stations. Autogrill is a renowned European operator of restaurants for drivers. The first Autogrill restaurant in the Czech Republic was opened last December on D5 highway at the Pilsen by-pass road direction Rozvadov. This restaurant was followed by opening of the second restaurant at the opposite BENZINA plus gas station direction Prague.

„Czech Republic is a very interesting market for Autogrill," said Marco Gatti, Country Manager for the Czech Republic. „We have five shops on main highways and we count on further development in the next three years. We are very pleased," adds Gatti, „that Benzina chose our company among the other international competitive players."

Of course, BENZINA plans to cooperate with other restaurant operators at other locations. It is currently in discussion with the best known fast food operator, McDonald ´s.

About Autogrill
Autogrill is the world's biggest provider of food & beverage and retail services for travelers. It operates in 33 countries with over 4,800 points of sale in over 1,000 locations. The 2006 sales reached approximately € 4 billion. Autogrill has 51,000 employees serving over 890 million customers every year. The Group operates along the highways, airports and railway stations. The highway locations of which the company operates a total of 687 )of that 576 in Europe and 111 in United States) in 12 countries generated sales in 2006 in the amount of €1.7 billion representing 43% of total sales.