Esso Thailand Plc, Thailand's fourth-largest fuel retailer, plans to upgrade the look and quality of its petrol stations, aiming to return to the top three in the market, says Yodpong Sutatham, the company's retail sales manager.
He said Esso plans to set aside 1 billion baht from the capital spending budget for 2017 to modernise petrol stations at a cost of 1 million baht per station.
Esso was in the top three of fuel retailers about five years ago, but it lost ground as rivals PTT Plc, Bangchak Corporation Plc and PTG Energy Plc expanded aggressively.
Mr Yodpong said the new stations will be called Synergy and have a fresh design, with the first five stations in Bangkok and the vicinity taking part in a pilot project.
He said it would take a certain amount of time to test the waters in the Bangkok market before expanding to other parts of the country.
Although the new design has already seen the light of day in several parts of Asia, including Hong Kong and Singapore, Esso Thailand is preparing new fuel products, a marketing campaign and a "business synergisation" plan with strategic partners before launch, Mr Yodpong said.
"We found that more than 50% of our regular customers paid more attention to fuel products than any other things. We've known that fuel products are our prominent selling point," he said.
Over the past four years, Esso focused on the Supreme Plus formula for diesel, launched in 2013.
Next year, Esso plans to increase the number of its petrol stations to more than 600 from 544 now.
One major expansion factor will be the acquisition of petrol stations from SET-listed Pure Thai Co, a unit of Rayong Purifier Plc (RPC).
Some 49 of RPC's stations will be modernised and rebranded to Esso, starting from this year.
Mr Yodpong said the acquisition of Pure Thai could provide Esso a big leap in business expansion.
He said Esso is looking for new expansion opportunities through liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) stations, some of which are in danger of going out of business because of escalating competition.
Esso is in talks with several LPG station owners for acquisitions, Mr Yodpong said.
LPG sales for the automotive sector slowed after the deregulation of LPG prices, which rose more than 25% and sharply reduced demand for LPG in transport, he said.
Esso Thailand will redesign some petrol stations under the Synergy brand.