New petrol pump format by Rodney Fitch & Co

Rodney Fitch & Co is developing a new automated retail offer for Kuwaiti petroleum company Q8, which will be rolled out across Italy and Belgium over the next five years.

Q8 Easy will be launched in the coming months, with 15 sites planned for Italy by the end of the year and five for Belgium. In total, 200 sites in each country will be rolled out by the end of 2005. Focused on convenience, the format will allow customers to pay for petrol at the pumps, making the whole process much swifter than most systems in the UK.

The international design group has worked for Q8 on several projects in the past including the development last year of F24, a concept for the Danish market.

Rodney Fitch senior associate Nick Brown says the latest branding projects follows changes in Italian legislation, which now permits card readers on all petrol forecourts. “Q8 is therefore revamping a large proportion of its estate to provide substantially improved automated customer facilities, which will be reflected in the new identity and livery to be unveiled soon,” he explains.

Brown says much consideration was given during the naming process to catering for a continental audience. “We wanted something that would work throughout Europe. Easy is a word like “okay” that they understand very quickly,” adds Brown, who says there are no plans to introduce the format into the UK.

“In comparison to the Europeans, the British are very backward in terms of using automated systems,” he adds.