INTERVIEW-Wincor Nixdorf eyes China gas stations for growth

* Full-service gas stations offset retail drop-off

* China sales to fall short of recent 20 percent avg

* Sales growth seen topping industry average in 2009

BEIJING, Sept 22 - Weaker demand in China is pushing German cash-register maker Wincor Nixdorf to look at alternative sectors for growth, such as China's fast-growing gas station sector, it said on Tuesday.

Slack consumer demand has forced Chinese retailers to scale back their expansion plans, pulling the company's sales growth in China below the 20-percent level it has averaged in recent years, said Yang Dehong, the head of Wincor Nixdorf's retail unit in China.

In an effort to fill that gap, the company is expanding into businesses that serve China's rapidly growing automobile sector, now the world's second largest.

Last month, Wincor Nixdorf agreed to equip 500 gas stations of China's offshore oil and gas specialist CNOOC Ltd with hardware and software over the next three years.

"With the number of private cars rising, oil companies are improving their level of service at gas stations, including offering non-oil products, which will become a new source of revenue for us," Yang told Reuters in an interview.

Wincor Nixdorf has also signed contracts with oil companies Sinopec, PetroChina, BP and Total SA, Yang said, without giving financial details of the deals.

Earlier this month, Volkswagen approved $5.84 billion in new investments for China, the German car maker's most important foreign market.

While sales growth in China is slowing, it is still positive and will outpace the industry average in 2009, said Yang.

"We had anticipated a bigger impact from the economic recession, but it looks like it has been smaller than we originally thought," Yang said.

Wincor Nixdorf's retail arm sells to roughly 200 supermarkets and retail chains in China, including France's retailer Carrefour and Swedish fashion brand Hennes & Mauritz.

The retail unit accounts for about 20 percent of the group's sales both globally and in China, and is chasing IBM in the Chinese cash register market, Yang said.

Globally, demand for cash registers and cash machines is set to fall by 10 to 20 percent this year, the German company said in July, forecasting a falling profit this fiscal year.

"But over the next two to three years, with the overall economy improving, the retail sector is likely to see a new round of rapid growth," he said.

The upward trend, together with a shift of economy's driving force to the second- and third-tier markets from major cities, would likely lead to a huge demand for cash machines, he said.