Esso (Thailand) Plc is proceeding with the second phase of its business revamp, spending up to 1 billion baht over the next three years to increase the number of petrol stations with non-fuel retail businesses.
Yodpong Sutatham, Esso's director of retail sales and fuel marketing, said the first phase of the revamp included a refurbishing of the existing 542 stations at a total cost of 1 billion baht.
The revamp aims to raise the company's market share from 14% to surpass rival Bangchak Petroleum Plc, which ranks second with a market share above 15%.
Esso's expansion plan calls for increasing the number of petrol stations to more than 600. That target is still well below the 800 stations Esso had before the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
"Since we came to Thailand several decades ago, over time our stations began to look a bit gloomy," Mr Yodpong said. "But from now on the looks will be brushed up and refreshed."
The company plans to add non-fuel retail businesses at petrol stations nationwide over the next three years as a way of retaining regular customers and attracting new ones.
"During the previous decade, we set out a campaign of distributing free drinking water only, but our competitors did better and expanded very fast," Mr Yodpong said. "So our marketing plan needs to be more aggressive from now on."
Esso has inked agreements to partner with Caffe D'Oro and convenience stores such as Tesco Lotus and Family Mart.
Last year, Esso added McDonald's at two petrol stations and put Burger King in six. Plans call for adding such restaurants at seven more stations this year.
In contrast, Esso's wholly owned Tiger Mart will be removed from stations over the next few months to be replaced with the new partners.
Tiger Marts exist at 60 stations, falling from 100 over the past several years.
In April, Esso introduced a card allowing motorists to collect mileage to be redeemed for privileges at Thai Air Asia, Tesco Lotus, telecom providers and cinema operators.
The card received a warm welcome and has 250,000 holders. Esso expects the number of card holders to surpass 1 million by next April.
On the fuelling front, Esso plans to launch new grades for petrol and diesel by September.
Although global oil prices remain weak, the situation has hurt the upstream oil business only.