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BANGKOK, March 14, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Thailand's leading oil and retail operator PTT Oil and Retail Business Plc. (OR) is gearing up for prolific international expansion and venture capital investment as part of the company's new pursuit to become a leading provider of mobility solutions and lifestyle offerings in the global arena. With nearly US$400 million earmarked for international expansion through 2026, OR set ambitious growth objectives for the next 5 years with focus on Southeast Asia.
For decades, OR has relentlessly adjusted its portfolio to better serve customers' needs in terms of mobility and future lifestyles. The company is now a truly diversified company driven by highly acclaimed integrated mobility and lifestyle platforms with business network and affiliates in 10 countries across Asia.
Recently the company set forth a new vision: "Empowering All toward Inclusive Growth" to guide its future business direction and reinforce its purposes to build business growth along with the flourish of people and their better quality of life and a decent environment.
As an established market leader in oil for over 40 years in Thailand and Southeast Asia, OR currently operates over 2,300 retail fuel station known as 'PTT Station' across the region, as well as wholesale oil business selling oil products, including LPG, diesel, jet fuel, fuel oil, gasoline, lubricants, asphalt, and others.
The company's non-oil assets include its flagship Café Amazon, now ranking as the sixth largest coffeehouse chain by number of outlets worldwide over 3,600 outlets in Thailand over 300 outlets across Asia; as well as several local and international food & beverage brands; Jiffy convenience stores; FIT Auto outlets; and space management at its fuel stations for rental and fee incomes.
"Over the last 10 years, OR has expanded business overseas by leveraging our proven successful business model of integrated oil and non-oil ventures at our fuel stations," said OR's CEO Jiraphon Kawswat. "Our next move for global market has been strategically devised to support our ambition to become a global brand. We planned to expand the presence of PTT Station across Asia by pursuing strategic partnership, acquisitions or joint venture with local fuel station operators. We set forth 2030 goals to expand market reach by adopting asset-light model to 100 countries across the world along with bringing at least 10 Thai brands to the global stage."
"Moreover, to stay relevant as a leader in current disruptive time, we have also geared our new investment towards new businesses to complement and accomplish our mobility and lifestyle ecosystem. We recently co-established a venture capital fund - ORZON Ventures in partnership with 500 TukTuks, the local operating unit of US venture capital firm 500 Startups, with key investment focus in innovations and startups in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Our funding, coupled with our robust business network and platform, will allow promising early-staged startups (Series A - B) to experiment commercial viability of their business ideas, and their successfully implemented operations will help us venture into new realm of fast-growing businesses at an accelerated learning curve," added Jiraphon.
Expanding presence of Café Amazon and PTT Stations across Southeast Asia
OR's approach for international expansion of Café Amazon is to seek competent local F&B business partners while customizing product and service to meet local people's preferences and leverage consumer data analytics to enhance customer experience.
"Fast growing regional markets in Southeast Asia like Cambodia, Laos and the Philippines, where we already have an established presence, will continue to be our key focus, given their high expected growth in GDP per capita, number of passenger cars, consumer spending in F&B and demand for refined oil products. We also aim to expand to new high-growth markets Myanmar, Vietnam and Indonesia, as well as broader Asia like China and India," added Jiraphon.
OR now owns and operates 361 PTT Stations in the Philippines, Cambodia and Laos, 5 FIT Auto outlets in Cambodia and Laos, 318 Café Amazon outlets across 10 markets in Asia including Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, Oman, Myanmar, Vietnam, China, Singapore, Malaysia, and Japan, and 97 Jiffy outlets in Cambodia and Laos.
Given a significant growth opportunity overseas, the company targets EBITDA from international business to account for 18-20% of the company's entire business by 2030.
Establishing ORZON Ventures to fuel new S-curve growth
In October 2021, OR announced partnership with 500 TukTuks to set up the ORZON Ventures fund, with initial investment of US$25 million, and expected to increase to $50 million in the future.
The new venture capital fund is actively looking to invest in promising start-up companies in Thailand and neighborhood countries with aim to uplift the regional start-up ecosystems and empower them with OR ecosystem and grow up inclusively. Its investment focus is Series A-B-stage startups in the areas of energy, food and beverage, smart retail, mobility, health and wellness, information technology and travel.
ORZON Ventures has recently concluded investment deals with five rising-star fast-growing startups across diversified business sectors from both Thailand and Southeast Asia. They are Pomelo, a leading fast fashion brand and platform widely recognized for its unique "Tap Try Buy" concept; Carsome, a leading online platform for buying and selling used cars with end-to-end solutions for both car dealers and consumers; Freshket, an online food supply chain platform for HoReCa businesses and consumers offering a variety of fresh and dried food; GoWabi, Thailand's leading platform for discovering and booking health and wellness services online; and Protomate, a hardware-AI startup focused on creating great consumer electronics products and services in the emerging technology areas.
"Startup development will be a key growth engine to fuel our new mobility and lifestyle businesses for long term future. We expect the fund will support additional startups across Southeast Asia by the end of 2022," added Jiraphon.
