DCC expands fuel card business

DISTRIBUTION and support services group, DCC has expanded its energy division again, with the £9.5 million (€10m) takeover of British business, Cooke Fuel Cards.

Cooke — which is based in Burnley — sells about 105m litres of motor fuels every year to 5,000 commercial vehicle fleet operating customers, via the fuel card system.

The company markets the cards under a number of leading brands, including BP, Shell, Diesel Direct and Texaco. The company’s full-year results for 2008 are likely to show it made an operating profit of about £2.7m (€2.9m).

The Burnley company’s 38 employees will be retained by DCC and the business will be formally integrated with DCC Energy’s existing fuel card enterprise, Fuel Card Services Limited.

Commenting on the latest deal, DCC group chief executive Tommy Breen said: “DCC Energy, in addition to being the leading oil and LPG sales, marketing and distribution business in Britain and Ireland, is also one of the leading fuel card sales and marketing businesses in Britain and sells approximately 270m litres of motor fuel per annum through a portfolio of leading fuel cards.

“The acquisition of Cooke Fuel Cards willsignificantly increase the scale of DCC’s fuel card business.”

While not ruling out further bolt-on acquisitions in any of its divisions, DCC has consistently said, over the past year or so, that its energy, environmental and healthcare divisions would be the prime focus when it came to making further acquisitions.

The Dublin-headquartered group’s last major acquisition — made in August — was also used to bolster its Energy division, in the form of the €27.5m takeover of Chevron’s British oil distribution division.

As a result, DCC Energy will distribute one billion tones of fuel and heating oil to about 100,000 commercial, agricultural, industrial and domestic customers across Britain. DCCs shares were up by 40c — or 3.77% — in Dublin yesterday, at €11.