The Prista Oil Group will distribute the complete line of Valvoline high-performance lubricants, automotive chemicals and car care products, and will supply customers in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Hungary, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Slovenia, Prista Oil said in a statement.
"I am very confident in this opportunity to bring added value for the customers of Prista and Valvoline in Central and Eastern Europe and, at the same time, to secure the companies' growth in the region," Prista Oil's chief executive officer Plamen Bobokov said in the statement.
"This agreement represents a major step forward in improving our supply and delivery capabilities for customers in this fast-growth market," Dean Doza, vice president and general manager of Valvoline for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), said in a separate statement.
Through Prista's experience and logistics network in CEE, Valvoline can assure the continued availability of its comprehensive range of products and services to automotive workshops, fleet owners, industrial and retail customers in the region, Doza added.
Valvoline International (www.valvoline.com) is an affiliate of Ashland Consumer Markets which is a commercial unit of chemcials maker Ashland (www.ashland.com).
Last year Bobokov told SeeNews in an interview that Prista Oil was planning to invest at least 100 million euro ($145.8 million) in production, distribution and marketing of lubricants within three years under its expansion plans, seeking to become a leading player on the European market.
The Prista Oil Group produces car batteries through its blue-chip unit MonBat and lubricants through its Prista Oil Holding company. Currently Prista Oil (www.prista-oil.com) has a network of four base oil storage and shipping terminals with a combined capacity of 52,000 cubic metres – two terminals in Korfez, Turkey; one in Odessa, Ukraine, and one in Varna, on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. It has three plants - two in Bulgaria and one in Turkey, and co-operates with Belgrade-based Rafinerija Nafte.
