PetrolPlaza Russia Special: Interview with Director of TATSUNO RUS, Victor Gordov. Part 1: History of the company

For 19 years TATSUNO RUS has been successfully operating in the Russian market. In a series of articles for PetrolPlaza Victor Gordov, Director of TATSUNO RUS, gives an insight into the Russian market from the perspective of an equipment supplier.

The Russian company TATSUNO RUS, a reputable manufacturer of fuel dispenser equipment as well as measuring and control systems for modern filling stations, is celebrating its 19^th anniversary in 2016. The company applies a systematic and comprehensive approach to the implementation of Japanese technology and European quality standards, as well as offers its own original solutions for automated control systems and their adaptation to the needs and requirements of the Russian market. The specialists of the joint venture TATSUNO RUS offer long-term experience in supplying secure faultless fuel dispensing equipment. In addition, the company has been operating its quality management system in conformity with the ISO 9001: 2008 requirements since 2008.

When was the company founded?

The Russian-Czech joint project aimed at the production of the license fuel dispensing equipment was launched in Ryazan in 1995, when the first stationary filling station in the town run by Chance Plus I became the first gas station in Russia to be equipped with the fuel dispensers manufactured by the young Czech company BENČ.

The further effective cooperation of the Russian and Czech partners resulted in the presentation of the BENČ fuel dispensers, certified for the Russian market, at the Second International Moscow Exhibition AUTOCOMPLEX. The new brand excited much interest among the visitors, and the first 75 Czech fuel dispensers were sold as late as 1996.

How did the new product establish itself in the Russian market?

At first, the launch of the new product was not that easy. Great efforts of the Czech and Russian colleagues were required for uninterrupted and efficient operation of the fuel dispensers throughout the Russian Federation. It was at that time when a new joint company was founded. The young company presented a brand new EUROLINE dispenser in 1997, which got instant recognition among field professionals and numerous customers. The joint company was called S-BENČ. Even up to this day many customers still call it by the old name out of habit.

What were the success factors from your perspective?

The unprecedented success factors of the new fuel dispenser model lied in the fact that the Czech company BENČ applied the best global technological achievements of the time and the highest manufacturing standards for that kind of equipment including primarily the hydraulic components by TATSUNO Corporation. It is important to note that the joint company S-BENČ scrutinized the subject of the future work at the very beginning, carried out large-scale adaptation trials, and conducted very thoroughly the certification of the equipment for the Russian market. The license assembly of the fuel dispensers was launched at the company production facilities in Ryazan.

Can you still remember at which gas station the new EUROLINE dispenser first came into use?

The fuel dispensers of the series ВМР 2000 EUROLINE equipped with the new PDE software and completely modified hardware elements manufactured in line with the Russian technical standards and adapted for the needs of the Russian market were first installed at the first filling station of the Lipetsk Fuel Company in Lipetsk on 18 May 1998. Today the filling station network of this well-known fuel market player operates more than 100 stations equipped with the TATSUNO RUS fuel dispensers operating in five regions of Central Russia.

What characterize your products and what differentiates them from those of competitors?

The TATSUNO RUS products are marketed as the premium fuel dispensers. The main distinctive features of this equipment as compared to the analogue dispensers in this market segment are as follows:

Original recognizable design which became very popular in Russia;
The equipment is supplied in the basic version to all climatic zones of the Russian Federation provided with a wide ambient temperature range from +55°C to -55°C and guaranteed operation under sharp reference temperature up to 30°C;
The electronics of the fuel dispenser boasts long-term viability under actual operating conditions of the Russian power supply networks often characterized by voltage drops of 180-250 V; the electronic components secure and restore all transaction data;
The effective separation of the TATSUNO monoblock unit enables the suction pipe of the fuel dispenser to feed fuel at intervals of more than 75 meters, or under certain conditions even at 100 meters away from the tank without filling the pipeline with petrol, and avoid small flange and valve leakiness;
The TATSUNO monoblock units are provided with dual fuel conversion system equipped with special configuration non-replacement filters;
The TATSUNO flow meters ensure high precision and repeatability of measurements of the fuel charge throughout the lifetime of the fuel dispenser to an accuracy of ±0,1%;
The adjustment of the TATSUNO flow meter guarantees high precision of the fuel feed at all seasons with no need for reset, including fuel lift on a specific banknote denomination;
The fuel dispensers are notable for their ease of maintenance and have minimum requirements for compulsory service activities. The technical assistance costs for one TATSUNO RUS two-hose fuel dispenser module account for about 7,000 rubles in 10 years’ operational life on average;
The safe life of the TATSUNO hydraulic units guaranteed by the manufacturer accounts for 15 mln L. The volume exceeding 60 mln L of the total fuel pumped over one TATSUNO hydraulic unit of the fuel dispenser without capital repair has been registered.

How did your company and projects develop? Which were the companies you worked with?

The joint venture S-BENČ had operated primarily in Central Russia until 2000, yet the fame of high reliability of the new equipment was spreading quickly across the country. The fuel dispensers manufactured in Ryazan gained great popularity and came to be actively purchased and installed at the filling stations of the Urals federal district, Western Siberia, Kamchatka, Sakhalin, and the Far East of Russia. The high reliability and precision of the new fuel dispensers led to their installation at numerous city filling stations with high traffic flows as well as in regions where the fuel dispensers are operated under extreme environmental conditions or at long intervals with no available assistance from maintenance departments.

The new joint company has not only provided a high quality level of the equipment supplied, but also developed an effective system of low-cost after-sales and maintenance services, which enables uninterrupted operation of the fuel dispensers installed up to 7,000 kilometers away from the Ryazan factory. Such comprehensive approach fully satisfied TATSUNO brand’s strict requirements and complied with the policy of the corporation on reliable service and high quality standards, which undoubtedly offered undeniable advantages to the company’s customers all over Russia and vouched for the successful marketing of the equipment across the country. According to the resolution of the general meeting of the founders held in 2000, the company was renamed as the Joint Company TATSUNO S-BENČ. The appearance of the world-renowned brand in the name of the joint venture attested to the high appreciation of the company’s performance in its first five years of existence.

In the early 2000s, the first big contracts for the delivery of fuel dispensing equipment of more than 100 fuel dispensers per order for major oil companies were concluded. The TATSUNO S-BENČ fuel dispensers came to be successfully operated in different regions at the filling stations run by such renowned brands as ROSNEFT, LUKOIL, YUKOS, Sibneft and TNK. The autofilling stations of such reputed companies as Bashkirnefteprodukt, Tatnefteprodukt, Karsar, Vladimir-Opton, SKON, Alfa-Trade, Magnat RD, Orenburgnefteprodukt, Kamchatnefteprodukt and many others were provided with the products of the new joint venture. In a number of cases the filling station networks operating the TATSUNO S-BENČ fuel dispensers reached to more than 150 stations.

A lot of the customers of TATSUNO S-BENČ were also private companies and medium-sized enterprises operating small filling station networks and competing with large oil companies. Such medium-sized enterprises found it profitable and necessary to operate high quality equipment boasting attractive design, high reliability, low maintenance costs and a guaranteed stock availability of spare parts for the fuel dispensers. The TATSUNO S-BENČ products fully met these criteria, which ensured the establishment of a well-known and popular Russian brand in the mid 2000s.

Since 2005 the company has been supplying its equipment to such companies as TopOil, SakhaNefteGasSbyt, the Yakutsk Fuel and Energy Company operating in the regions of the Extreme North of Russia. The actual operating temperature of the TATSUNO S-BENČ fuel dispenser was registered at -57°C.

By 2010 the TATSUNO S-BENČ equipment had been installed at 3.5 thousand filling stations in 60 regions of Russia and Kazakhstan from Kaliningrad to Nakhodka and from Novy Urengoy to Krasnoyarsk. At this period the company workers were busy not only in assembling the fuel dispensers at the company production facilities but also in putting into operation the company’s equipment at about 100 filling stations in various regions of Russia and Kazakhstan annually.

According to the decision of the general meeting of the founders held in 2010, the company was renamed as the Joint Company TATSUNO RUS and, thus, became part of the international TATSUNO corporation and its full-fledged assembly facility in Russia.

Can you sum up what were the key developments in the Russian market in the last 20 years and how did TATSUNO RUS took part on them?

It should be noted that only in the last two decades the Russian retail fuel market has made tremendous progress from primitive container stations to state-of-the-art autofilling complexes providing a wide range of related services. The Joint Company TATSUNO RUS has taken an active part in the evolutionary development of this sector of economy and made an important contribution to the creation and improvement of modern fuel dispensing technologies in Russia.