Customers of the Hofer discount supermarket chain will be able to gas-up on site beginning next year. Several Hofer supermarkets in Salzburg will open discount petrol stations run by Free Energy Trading GmbH (FE) in 2009 and if the experiment proves successful, Hofer will expand the network of stations in its stores’ parking lots throughout Austria.

The system will be simple. Customers will fill their tanks themselves and then pay for their fuel with a debit or credit card at machines next to the pumps. Hofer has not revealed which supermarkets in Salzburg will have petrol stations or which other provinces it will expand the project to if it proves successful. The chain has cautioned, however, that it will not be possible to open stations at all of its stores.

FE was founded by Markus Friesacher in September this year, and real-estate investor Elisabeth Eder has a 10 percent interest in it. Friesacher reportedly does not have contracts with oil companies but buys his fuel on the open market.