The head of Thailand's biggest gas station network has $1.5 billion that says motorists will soon be stocking up on a different kind of fuel — coffee.
That's the bet that Jiraporn Kaosawad, Chief Executive of PTT Oil and Retail Business (PTTOR), is placing on rolling out thousands of coffee shops at home and abroad, along with other non-oil businesses, as global auto and fuel players gear up for a near future dominated by electric car growth.
A month on from Thailand's biggest initial public offering of the year, Jiraporn's plans for the Cafe Amazon business — already the no.1 Thai coffee shop chain — present PTTOR's take on the task facing oil majors from BP to Total: how to maximize profit from fuel networks as drivers of the near future wait for their electrics cars to be charged up.