An the Arco gas station in San Clemente, California, a gallon of gasoline costs just $ 4,499, or just under four liters of fuel for around EUR 3.96. The digits shine brightly on the price pole. At another station in the USA, one of 7 students in Oklahoma, something is wrong. The last number of the gasoline price appears on the display board in red instead of white, and it is an “8” instead of the usual “9”. Something has been set incorrectly here, or the LEDs are broken.
Details like these can be seen this morning on a control screen in Bergneustadt, around 8,000 kilometers away, in the Bergisches Land – in the control center of the manufacturer of the price displays, the medium-sized company PWM. The seventh generation of the family business not only monitors the price boards themselves via remote diagnosis, but also the temperature of the power supply units and LED digits as well as the operating time.
Every malfunction should be recognized before the driver drives past the station with incorrect or even illegible fuel price information. In far-away Germany, the medium-sized supplier now has to fix a bug in Oklahoma. In an emergency, the employee in Bergneustadt has to send a technician on site in Texas to the 7 Eleven station.
The “PWM case” is typical for German medium-sized companies. Founded around 200 years ago as a textile company by Leopold Krawinkel in the Bergisches Land, the production company has had to reinvent itself several times since then. From the former embroidery to a clothing manufacturer, the path led to the technology company for advertising lighting and finally to the specialist for price displays at petrol stations. Now the emerging electromobility and digitalization are forcing another change.
It is precisely this ability to innovate that characterizes the around 3.5 million small and medium-sized companies in Germany. Billions of euros are invested in realignments. Immediately before the outbreak of the corona pandemic, according to a survey by the auditing and consulting company Pricewaterhouse-Coopers among 250 medium-sized companies, 88 percent of them said they were already investing in digitization projects. When asked about the future, 92 percent wanted to spend money on it in three to five years.
“We experience again and again what distinguishes medium-sized companies in addition to their high social contribution: flexibility, customer proximity and creativity,” says Friederike Welter, President of the Bonn Institute for SME Research. As in the PWM example, digitization is one of the top priorities. “The unity of ownership and management as well as flat organizational structures make it possible for the managers to react quickly to changed framework conditions,” says Welter.
Functional even in monsoon rains
Today PWM is the world market leader for price displays at petrol stations and supplies stations in 120 countries. In Germany, no competitor equips gasoline stations with price masts, despite different technology or the very own design of the gasoline brands. Most petrol station customers choose light-emitting diodes for this, often in white, more rarely in green, blue or, as with the Shell brand, in red.
Market leader Aral relies on a special folding technology on the display with electromagnetic digits. Jet, on the other hand, uses roller belt technology to change the figures. Sometimes the price mast is a few meters high, sometimes it sways at a height of twelve meters. A special feature of the products is that the displays work at minus 40 degrees Celsius in Canada, for example, as they do at plus 40 degrees in Qatar and remain functional even in monsoon rain or hurricane winds.
But the high market share is little more than a snapshot. Because company boss and owner Max Krawinkel has to come up with a few ideas together with his developers so that the medium-sized company still has a chance of survival in the eighth and next generation of the family.
In its home market, the current number of around 14,000 filling stations will shrink in the coming decades when fewer gasoline and diesel and more electric cars are on the road. “The density of filling stations will definitely decrease,” says Krawinkel. Replacement requirements instead of new requirements should then shape the price display business.
Systems for 1400 stations of 7 students
It is true that filling station groups are also currently setting up the first charging columns at their stations and displaying the electricity tariff on the price pole. However, they are unlikely to replace the gasoline and diesel business on a large scale. Traffic experts expect that electric cars will be charged at home, in parking lots or near offices – at least not regularly at filling stations. The petrol stations should only find sufficient customers with their charging offer on longer journeys.
During this time, company boss Krawinkel wants to create a changed basis for the medium-sized company and the next generation of the family. He sees himself as “a relay runner” who wants to pass on a sustainable company. On the one hand, he wants to use more opportunities abroad, especially in the USA and in African countries, so that the core business with price displays will continue to grow for a few years.
The 56-year-old recently signed a major contract with the 7 Eleven gas station brand in Dallas. Now the American subsidiary of PWM is to introduce the new control system at 1,400 of the brand’s stations. The systems are manufactured by around 160 employees exclusively at the company’s headquarters in Bergneustadt. Because of the increased demand, they recently had to work three shifts. In the current financial year 2021, Krawinkel expects record sales of around 33 million euros, also because of this order.
Screen advertising for coffee and car wash
The USA – with around 120,000 petrol stations, the largest petrol station market in the world and almost nine times as large compared to Germany – is an Eldorado for medium-sized PWM. Price poles only came to petrol stations on a large scale after the Iraq war and the turn of the millennium. Before that, gasoline prices hardly fluctuated. Today, the so-called re-flagging, when a petrol station changes oil company or operator, creates new business.
In this way, the brand changes at around 40,000 stations per year. Up-to-date technology is still not very widespread in the USA. Being able to control every single LED light in a price display via the Internet is currently still the unique position of PWM.
In addition to these foreign markets, Krawinkel is also focusing on a completely different business area for the future. The entrepreneur wants to offer advertising on screens in the outdoor area of the petrol station and in the shops, be it for coffee, bread rolls, grilled sausage, car wash or other purposes. Even job advertisements for companies from the region can be found on the advertising screens in pilot projects at the first petrol stations.
PWM has developed a platform on the Internet for this purpose. The aim is to connect clients such as advertising agencies or companies from the regions with a petrol station. “In part, this will make us a software company,” says Krawinkel. PWM intends to take over the technology right through to the design of the commercials, as well as the installation of the five LED and LCD screens for each petrol station.
Similar to booking a hotel via online portals, a fee then flows from the advertiser to the medium-sized company. “We want to redevelop the advertising space at the gas station,” says Krawinkel. By the end of the year, such advertisements, including screens, are to be seen at 40 petrol stations. After that, “several hundred” locations are planned. A new building is being built for the business area on the company premises in Bergneustadt.
On average, every customer spends four minutes at the petrol station filling up with petrol; this period is longer when charging electricity. Then, so the medium-sized company enthuses about the possibilities, artificial intelligence should fill the display boards with information.
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