ONE MORE THING: CALOR GAS has set aside an €11 million investment pot for the business this year as it seeks to expand its footprint in Ireland.
Its German-born chief executive, Michael Kossack, told me this week that this would be spent on cylinders, tanks, trucks and upgrading IT systems.
Calor has been busily promoting itself to domestic customers as an alternative to oil. It can supply gas storage tanks to homes that can be topped up by trucks.
The service is aimed mostly at rural areas, where the natural gas network is not available.
Its biggest rival is Flogas, which is owned by DCC.
Calor supplies about 40,000 tanks in Ireland and has 17,000 cylinder customers.
Owned by a Dutch family, it releases only limited financial information.
Kossack said revenues in 2010 hit €133 million, up from €120 million the previous year.
Calor has a target of a rise in volumes of 3 to 4 per cent in 2011.
“The first five months of this year were actually slightly better than that,” Kossack said.
He described Calor’s profits as “very healthy” and said it paid a dividend to its Dutch parent.
“We have no bank loans so we are in a good place,” he said.
