BANGKOK -- The retail arm of Thailand's state-owned energy giant expects to double its net profit by 2025 as it transitions away from a gas station-based business to one that also provides drivers a little relief from the road, makes deliveries to smartphone users and gives electric vehicle owners locations to charge their batteries.

PTT Oil and Retail Business (PTTOR) has conducted research that shows drivers and their passengers "spend around four minutes refilling their tanks but another 15-20 minutes in other parts of our stations," CEO Jiraporn Khaowawat told Nikkei Asia. "That's why we see an opportunity to make a profit by offering new products and services that match [Thailand's changing] lifestyles."

As it adds to its fossil fuel business, Jiraporn said, "we are making some changes to our 74.6 billion baht ($2.2 billion) budget, and the revised version is due to be approved by the company's board of directors and is expected to be revealed soon."

In 2020, PTTOR took in total revenue of 428 billion baht ($12.89 billion) for a net profit of 8.8 billion baht. By 2025, however, it expects net profit to at least double to 16 billion baht to 20 billion baht.

The makeover is already underway. PTTOR has set aside 15% of total capital expenditure for a wellness and lifestyle business.

It will offer products and services that consumers rarely find in the roadside convenience stores that stand next to gas stations. Organic vegetables, other healthy foods and health care items will be included in the mix. The complexes will include famous restaurant chains selling salads, sandwiches, fried chicken and steak.

PTTOR will also use the funds to build a "mobility ecosystem" featuring Fix Auto outlets, which service cars, change tires and offer other automotive repair services. In the future, EV repair services will be available.

Small fitness centers and other leisure services are also in PTTOR's future playbook.

CEO Jiraporn Khaowawat intends to make much more use of the real estate under the company's ubiquitous gas stations. (Photo courtesy of the company)

"We are not only a place for refilling fuel tanks or recharging EVs," Jiraporn said, "but we are trying to be an all mobility solutions provider."

The conglomerate, which controls the largest share of Thailand's gas station market at 37%, intends to maintain that position as it gradually transforms thousands of its stations into marketplaces that invite drivers and passengers to get out of the car for a bite to eat, something to drink or perhaps to buy some eye drops or sunscreen.

As PTTOR expands its stations, particularly along highways leading to the country's big tourist destinations, it will try to entice travelers inside with food courts featuring a range of tenants, from dim sum eateries to Taiwanese bubble tea houses. Its roadside complexes will also offer local flavors by renting space to small community enterprises and farmers.

Recently, PTTOR joined hands with Flash Express, a delivery startup and the country's first unicorn, as an initial step toward making PTT stations drop-off points.

The company is moving on other fronts. On Oct. 28, it bought a 25% stake in ISGC, which operates the Japanese restaurant chain Kouen, for 192 million baht ($5.7 million). The investment was made to further diversify the types of meals available at PTT station complexes.

Making use of Thailand's expanding network of highways is becoming more popular among drivers and motorcycle enthusiasts who prefer the freedom of the open road to public transportation. Being behind the wheel or handlebars offers drivers more choices in how they spend their leisure time, where to go and when to go. Along the way, drivers also like being able to decide on their own if they want to make a pit stop, get a bite to eat or, perhaps in the future, loosen up in a roadside fitness center.

PTTOR is thinking big with its transformation and also sees itself competing with department store chains as it turns its gas stations into easy-access emporiums.

"Gas stations are normally located in good locations," Jiraporn said. "Consumers can easily reach thousands of our stores [as they drive by]. They can get what they want without having to go to a busy district [like they would] to reach a big department store.

"This is what we see as our new opportunity as we develop our non-oil business."

To draw customers who do not want to venture into a crowded department store district, PTTOR will offer mobile phone gadgets, electronic devices, fashions and lifestyle goods.

It also has extended its joint-venture contract with the CP ALL conglomerate, which operates the 7-Eleven convenience chain in Thailand, for another 10 years. In addition, it has partnered with food and beverage companies in an effort to expand the supply chains that end either at its gas station complexes or at its Cafe Amazon coffee chain, which has shops across the country.

PTTOR plans to more than triple the number of its overseas Cafe Amazon coffee shops to 1,000 by 2025.   © Reuters

Jiraporn said PTTOR also intends to cater to health-conscious consumers and is in talks with drugmakers and health care companies about putting vitamin and food supplements, skin care items as well as small fitness centers in its roadside marketplaces.

As for its Starbucks-like Cafe Amazon chain, PTTOR intends to expand it to 5,200 branches over the next five years from the current 3,492 branches. The cafes and their millions of customers will also be introduced to new food items, the development of which will take up a significant chunk of the group's total capital expenditure.

In addition, the company intends to more than triple the number of overseas Cafe Amazon shops to 1,000 by 2025.

PTTOR will put about 22% of its capital investment budget toward expanding abroad, particularly in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, as well as elsewhere in Southeast Asia. It operates a jet fuel business in Cambodia and an industrial lubricant business in China. It has Cafe Amazon shops and PTT stations in other Southeast Asian nations.

Another 34% of its total capital expenditure will be put into infrastructure for PTT gas stations and electric vehicle charging locations, Jiraporn said.

"We are not ignoring the incoming EV trend," she added. "But we believe it will certainly be a long time before Thailand can become a 100% EV community."

According to the Land Transportation Department, Thailand in 2020 had 1,056 legally registered electric vehicles, accounting for around 0.13% of the country's 792,146 registered cars and a trickle compared to the government's goal of having up to 725,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2030.

In other words, PTT's customer base continues to be the drivers of the country's more than 700,000 internal combustion powered cars and its 21.4 million motorbikes.

The company plans to aggressively increase the number of its gas stations, not because it expects a sharp increase in oil demand but because it wants the infrastructure in place that can be reconfigured to serve as bases for delivery services and electric vehicle charging.

PTTOR expects to have 2,500 stations by 2025, up from 2,040 now. It also has 30 electric vehicle charging stations, but that number will rise to 100 by the end of this year and to 300 by the end of 2022, according to the company.

After PTT, No. 2 Esso (Thailand) holds a 10.7% of Thailand's gas station market and Bangchak Corporation has a 10.1% share, according to Energy Ministry data.