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Fuel cards in Europe, Top 5 markets, 2010-2020e; France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK

Summary

The European top five commercial fuel card markets are worth €50.7bn. In recent years the proportion of fuel purchased on fuel cards has increased and a number of smaller, independent oil company fuel card issuers have emerged. In 2015, fuel card volumes across the top five markets grew 1.9% totaling just less than 42.2bn liters. Germany is the largest fuel card market in Europe and accounts for 32.2% of fuel card volume sales across the region but the popularity of fuel cards varies across the continent. Verdict predicts that growth in the top five fuel card markets is likely to come from the UK as small fleet vehicles turn to fuel cards to reduce transport costs.

Key Findings

- Commercial fleets to provide volume growth potential. Over the last five years the numbers of fleet vehicles in the top five European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK) have been slowly growing as card eligibility levels are reduced and the fleet sector faces increasing competition from foreign companies. This trend will continue to grow as fuel prices begin to rise towards 2020, forcing fleets to use fuel cards to lower transport costs and remain competitive.

- Supermarket fuel cards bring potential threat. Supermarket retailers that launch their own fuel cards provide a large potential threat to the French and UK fuel card markets as they have the ability to easily target fleet vehicles, which will be the highest growing segment of the market towards 2020. Many fleet vehicles in the UK and France use supermarket sites due to their low pricing and have already built up a level of loyalty and familiarity with certain sites and retailers. In order to expand this usage by small to medium fleets, supermarket retailers should consider launching their own fuel card, as Intermarché and Auchan have done in France.

- Foreign fleets to cause volume growth in top five markets. The proportion of fuel card volumes sold across most of the European top five to foreign fuel cards will increase year on year towards 2020 as international trade levels increase. Since the European economic crisis of 2008–2009, international trade levels have been rising as markets have recovered and foreign fuel cards have made up larger proportions of total fuel volumes. This has been made a key segment of the market for card operators wanting to increase fuel card volumes over the next five years to target.

Synopsis

“Fuel cards in Europe, Top 5 markets, 2010-2020e”, a Sector Report by Verdict Retail, provides an executive-level overview of the European top 5 fuel card markets today, with forecasts of values and volumes up to 2020. It delivers deep quantitative and qualitative insight into the fuel card market, analyzing key trends in the market based on in depth interviews with major fuel card operators across Europe and proprietary data from Verdict Retail’s service station retail databases.

It provides in-depth analysis of the following:

- Fuel Card Volumes, Values and Market Shares – Forecasted to 2020

- Fleet and CRT fuel card data

- Analysis of major competitors in each market

- In depth analysis of trends that will have a major impact on the market over the next five years.

Reasons To Buy

- Plan effective market entry strategies by uncovering the current and future volume and value of fuel card transactions in the top five fuel card markets in Europe.

- Assess whether you should increase network acceptance of your card and identify potential new merchants by uncovering the position of competitors.

- Whether you are an issuer, a processor, a leasing company, or a fuel retailer, make informed pitches to partners by understanding their business.

- Enhance fuel sales at your service stations by identifying which fuel cards you should accept based on their market shares and network acceptance.