OR Prioritizes High-Margin Lifestyle Business to Boost Overall Profitability
M.L. Peekthong Thongyai, Chief Executive Officer of PTT Oil and Retail Business Public Company Limited (SET: OR), recently detailed the company’s strategic shift toward amplifying revenue derived from its high-margin lifestyle Business segment. While this segment currently contributes a modest 4–5% of the company’s total revenue, its disproportionate profitability is striking, delivering approximately 30% of OR’s total profit.
The CEO emphasized that substantially increasing the revenue proportion from these lifestyle offerings will fundamentally enhance OR’s overall Business opportunities, leveraging the inherently higher profit margin found in non-fuel services. Looking ahead to the 2026 fiscal year, the company operates under the assumption that global oil prices will maintain stability, forecasting a range of approximately USD 60–75 per barrel, allowing management to focus strategic efforts domestically.
OR has established an ambitious daily customer target centered on significantly increasing service station visits to expand its market share and future Business opportunities. The immediate goal is to boost the number of daily service station customers from the current 4 million users to 5 million by 2028, representing an increase of roughly 1 million customers.
By the end of 2026, the daily customer count at service stations is specifically expected to reach 4.3 million, a pivotal step intended to help raise the company’s market share from the existing 36% to 40% in the foreseeable future. This strategy transforms the traditional service station model into a comprehensive lifestyle destination.
Adapting Service Stations for the Electric Vehicle Economy and Digital Integration
A critical component of OR’s strategy involves the comprehensive adaptation of its service stations to accommodate the accelerating transition toward electric mobility, simultaneously leveraging digital technology to enhance customer experience. Service stations are being strategically tasked with establishing widespread charging stations to build public confidence in utilizing Electric Vehicles (EVs), thereby expanding the number of charging points and increasing the average usage time per charger.
The company has identified chargers with a capacity of 120–180 kilowatts as the most suitable for the current market and the national power grid, typically allowing for a full charge in about half an hour. This shift to electric energy has profoundly altered customer dwell times; while traditional gasoline refueling typically takes about seven minutes (allowing for a quick visit to 7-Eleven), the 30-minute EV charging period necessitates the introduction of new services that customers can utilize during this extended duration.
As a direct result, OR is actively introducing various complementary services such as laundry facilities, enhanced dining options, and premium coffee drinking spaces across its stations, effectively transforming them into local hubs. Digital technology plays an essential role in this transformation, exemplified by the EV Station Plus application, which enables customers to efficiently check charger locations and even make reservations in advance.
Furthermore, OR is making significant Investment in digital transformation through initiatives like the Intelligence Station Project, with the goal of installing approximately 200 Intelligence Stations in prime areas this year to gather and better understand complex customer behaviors, enabling more precise service adaptations and boosting overall Business efficiency.
Navigating Regional Business Challenges and Driving National Energy Transition
While focusing on domestic expansion, OR is simultaneously navigating complex regional Business challenges, particularly in Cambodia and Vietnam, while maintaining its commitment to driving Thailand’s national energy transition. The dispute between Thailand and Cambodia has impacted OR’s presence, causing the number of its stations in Cambodia to drop from over 200 to approximately 150.
Since only about 10% of these stations are OR-owned (with 90% held by Cambodian dealer-investors), the conflict led to roughly 30–40 dealers switching brands. Consequently, the number of Café Amazon outlets in Cambodia has also decreased to about 150 branches, resulting in a significant 50–60% decline in sales within the country.
However, management confirmed that the Cambodian operation only accounts for a minor 2–3% of OR’s total Business and is therefore not impactful to the overall Finance health of the company. OR expects to finalize its long-term Investment plan regarding its presence in Cambodia by the end of this year or, at the latest, by January 2026.
In contrast, the company ceased operations of Café Amazon outlets in Vietnam after expansion stalled beyond the initial 20–30 branches, concluding that OR’s successful expansion formula in Thailand could not be replicated due to strong local competition and significant hidden operating costs. Despite these regional setbacks, OR remains deeply committed to advancing the national energy transition, aligning with Thailand’s Net Zero 2050 target.
This commitment is materialized through the aggressive expansion of its EV Station PluZ business, strengthening the Business ecosystem, and aiming to install a total of 7,000 DC chargers nationwide by 2030. Currently, OR boasts over 3,300 chargers across PTT Stations, LPG stations, NGV stations, and other high-potential commercial areas, both inside and outside PTT Stations, confirming its leadership in developing the national EV charging infrastructure.
Financial Analyst Commentary: The Strategic Decoupling of Margin from Energy Volatility
OR’s pivot toward aggressively expanding its lifestyle Business model is a critical strategic move that signals a structural shift within Southeast Asia’s downstream Energy sector. The company is proactively decoupling its core profit margin from the inherent volatility of global oil prices, moving toward a higher-quality, recurring revenue stream.
By targeting a massive increase in non-fuel profit contribution (currently 30%) through higher customer foot traffic (5 million daily customers by 2028), OR is repositioning itself from a commodity-driven utility to a consumer-retail destination. This strategy is highly effective because the marginal cost of selling a cup of coffee or a laundry service during a 30-minute EV charging stop is significantly lower than the marginal cost of pumping fuel, resulting in superior Return on Investment (ROI) for the real estate.
The failures in Vietnam and the setbacks in Cambodia, while minor in direct financial terms (2-3% of total Business), offer a crucial regional lesson: OR’s success in Thailand is underpinned by the established PTT brand and mature, high-density infrastructure, advantages which are not easily exportable to highly competitive foreign markets like Vietnam where localized competition, supply chain friction, and complex regulatory environments dilute the company’s competitive edge.
The aggressive commitment to 7,000 DC chargers by 2030 solidifies OR’s strategic dominance in Thailand’s nascent EV Economy, establishing an insurmountable first-mover advantage that transforms its extensive service station network from a legacy fossil fuel asset into a future-proof, electric mobility infrastructure essential for Thailand’s Net Zero aspirations.
