With Esso Ireland set to invest €70 million in station upgrades, Declan Collier wants to provide beer and sit-down café facilities with internet points, writes Arthur Beesley

When Declan Collier was being interviewed in 1978 for his first job at Esso, a member of the panel predicted the world's supply of oil would be gone by the end of the century. Wrong. But the interviewers did choose the right candidate. By 2000, he was chairman of the firm.

If Mr Collier joined an industry about to undergo the second oil shock in 1979, the scene today has altered radically. In a generation that saw technology replace energy as the business theme of the time, filling stations came to resemble supermarkets more than the seat of parish pump politics.

Yesterday, Mr Collier revealed plans to invest €70 million in a programme to upgrade 40 Esso outlets in greater Dublin. With annual revenues of €1.1 billion and a post-tax profit of about €20 million, the sums are big.

In the wider context, he was in a college class from which 90 per cent of the graduates emigrated immediately. Mr Collier was not among them although he did spend about nine years working abroad for Esso. A man who exhibits a sense of detail, he is measured, confident, but not brash.

Yes, he can talk about the economy in great detail. No, he wouldn't pretend to be able to act as Minister for Finance. Yet what of the new programme for government? It will have to marry economic necessity with the requirement to maintain growth and the confidence of international investors, he says.

He adds: "The new government faces more difficult challenges in this term of office than over the last five years. There's the mechanistic question of 'how much money will we have?' Equally there could well be a more philosophical responsibility for Ireland in the way that the economy will be perceived on the global level.

"The government will have to ensure that it has the ability to drive the economy to the next level, so that we can be seen [as people\] who can operate a mature economy as opposed to a developing economy."

This he notes as local head of a subsidiary owned by Exxon-Mobil organisation, which has annual post-tax profits of $8 billion (€8.7 billion) and a market capitalisation this week of about $273 billion.

Such profits demand direct investment in the business of $10 to $12 billion annually. Therefore, Mr Collier sees himself competing with the group's other European operations for the resources he will use in the latest initiative. That aside, the logic behind the move is clear: keep moving with the market.

Esso came to Ireland in 1898 - before the motor era - to sell lamp oil. Its forerunner, the Anglo-American Oil Company, was the fourth company to register itself with the Free State at Independence.

Change, he says, is the company's culture. Esso directly employed more than 800 people in the Republic in the 1970s - the core staff today is about 120.

From the bottom-line perspective, he says profit margins have fallen to less than two cents per litre of fuel from about 6.5 cents 20 years ago. That demands action to generate alternative revenue.

Mr Collier's first post in Esso coincided with a push to sell cigarettes and chocolate at filling stations. Now he wants to add beer to the winelist and provide sit-down café facilities with internet points.

It's a long way from the oily rag. Mr Collier says part of the change will be reflected in the development of dedicated parking space at filling stations, confirming an intention to develop the non-fuel elements of the business in their own right.

Mr Collier says the development is in keeping with an economic expansion that puts a high premium on convenience. So while the Republic today is a richer, more confident and sophisticated economy, the nature of life is different. People have less time but more stress.

"Despite all the choice, they're less satisfied," he says.

Individualism fragments the market - creating opportunities. In the food market, this means higher demand for pre-cooked products and more diverse choice. Easy.

But as any student of business will observe, every opportunity presents a potential threat. Hence, competitors such as Texaco have introduced a SuperQ, linking the fuel brand with the Superquinn chain. Mr Collier says there are suggestions that Tesco will soon retail fuel in the Republic. With about 25 per cent of the market, he says he welcomes competition.

Asked whether Esso is considering a connection with any other supermarket chain, Mr Collier says all options were possible. However, Esso wants to develop its "On the Run" brand.

In the future, he sees the company using the new brand at its wider network of 400 outlets throughout the State.

He knows what he wants from the Irish business. After a spell in the Benelux region and almost nine years working in Esso's British operation, he see strong growth potential from the Irish market. As an example, he cites the development of Esso's retail network there. Revenues grew almost tenfold to £380 million sterling (€601 million) from £40 million in a six-year period in the 1990s.

From Dublin, Mr Collier studied economics at Trinity College where he completed a Masters degree in economics. While he had no particular desire to work in the oil business, he assessed the State's energy needs in his Masters thesis. With periodic crises on the global oil markets and no indigenous supply of gas at the time, it was very much the hot topic. Indeed, Mr Collier recalls the time when there was a plan to develop a nuclear station at Carnsore Point, Co Wexford.

Higher on the agenda today is the depletion of fossil fuel reserves referred to in the job interview. The fuel hasn't disappeared nor will it in the medium term, he says. But it's not infinite. The solution, he says, is to use technology to enhance the efficiency of the fuel used today while developing alternatives.

"If you look back at the development of oil, it was the best-known technology of the time. You can only work with what's known to be best," he says. "In the medium term, the prospects of oil running out or gas running out are not things we should really fear."

Others might question that but Mr Collier appears comfortable with the proposition. Mr Declan Collier: Esso's planned development is in keeping with an economic expansion that puts a high premium on convenience.