Minol
Encyclopedia : M : MI : MIN : Minol
The VEB Kombinat Minol, founded on January the 1st 1956, was the state-owned gasoline and lubricant reseller of the German Democratic Republic.
The marketing name MINOL was invented in 1949. Die Deutsche Kraftstoff- und Mineralölzentrale (DKMZ) and the German-Russian Naphta-AG founded then the VEB Kraftstoff-Vertrieb. Both of them - DHZ und VEB Kraftstoff-Vertrieb - founded on the 1st of January 1956 the VEB MINOL.
All of the products of the VEB were marketed under the name Minol and when the Berlin wall broke down it had a market share of 97 per cent (according to the research "Grundlagenstudie MINOL in der BRD", September 1990). These brands were not used in other countries. The colours of Minol were red for the caption and yellow for the background. The mascot, Minol's Golden Oriole was widely known in the GDR.
In the last moments of the GDR there were about 1300 Minol filling stations, including small stations.
On June the 8th 1990 the VEB Minol became a joint stock company under the name MINOL Mineralölhandel AG. This company had three daughter companies selling fuel:
In the course of privatization of East German enterprises MINOL AG and the oil refinery Leuna were bought by the French oil company Elf Aquitaine. However, the new owner wasn't interested in the brand anymore and stopped operating stations under its name.
As of 2006, the brand MINOL is owned by the French company Total, the follower of Elf Aquitaine.
In fear of losing the trademark, Total reopened in 2003 and 2004 a total of Minol filling stations (Berlin, Chemnitz und Leipzig). For economical reasons the stations in Berlin and Chemnitz were, however, soon closed down. There is currently only one Minol station operating, that of Leipzig in the Lützner street.
External links
- [The history of Minol on Total's home page] (in German)
- [minol-buch.de]-A book about Minol (in German)
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.