New management team plans expansion at Topaz

The Denis O'Brien-backed consortium that bought the Statoil and Shell service station chains is seeking to expand.

Topaz yesterday named its management team, which will be led by existing chief executive Danny Murray.

The other executives will be Frank Bergin, chief operations officer, Tim Dolphin, finance controller, Frank Gleeson, retail director and Liam Mulcahy, commercial director.

Management will also include Paul Candon as head of human resources and Alan McLean as director of business development and corporate affairs.

Topaz said that the appointment of a new management team marked the fact that the merging of the two businesses is now under way.

Mr Murray said that one of management's key objectives would be to grow the combined market shares of Shell and Statoil.

"We're actively looking at opportunities to open a number of new service stations," he said. "We hope to conclude a number of deals in this regard during the course of the coming months."

The combined businesses are currently set to turn over €3.5 billion in 2007, making Topaz one of the Republic's biggest privately-owned companies.

Telecoms tycoon Denis O'Brien and Galway property player Gerry Barrettare shareholders in the consortium.

Topaz bought Statoil's service station network from the Norwegian state player for €285 million last year. The company bought Shell's network in 2005.

The Statoil deal went through after an inadvertent error on the part of the Competition Authority meant that the monopolies watchdog could not impose certain restrictions on the company. However, Topaz has since agreed to honour those restrictions.