Thai petrol station chain to expand

Paktai Chueplerng, a company which runs a medium-sized petrol station chain in Thailand, is seeking to expand. It will spend 600 million baht (US$18.6 million) in the last quarter of this year to upgrade existing locations and aims to increase the number of service stations to 400 within five years, according to Company President Pitak Ratchakitprakarn. The upgrade will include a change in the brands logo. The company manages its stations through 32 sub-offices with 180 business partners. It plans to increase the number of partners by approaching many of the country’s 12,000 independent service stations. Pitak said one of its strength is its seven oil depots located very close to Bangkok. This allows it to keep distribution costs lower than competitors. Another advantage is its “flexible but precise management.” Pitak said the company has cleared its 3-billion baht (US$93 million) debt and has reorganized its financial system last June. (August 21, 2007)