Gulf Oil targets robust growth, plans to invest Rs 150 cr

The Dollar Business Bureau

Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd, the leading lubricant multinational, said on Wednesday that it is targeting a strong organic growth in the coming few years and is in process to invest Rs.150 crore in the company’s new unit in Chennai.

The company stated that it will also put more focus on the passenger automotive business.
“We are aiming for strong growth in India. We are putting up our second greenfield plant at Chennai at a cost of Rs.150 crore to augment the capacity in the next 18 months to 1.35-1.40 lakh MT capacity,” said Ravi Chawla, Managing Director, Gulf Oil Lubricants.

Recently, the company had invested Rs.40-45 crore as capital expenditure to ramp up the capacity of its first plant at Silvassa from 75,000 MT to 90,000 MT.

Briefing about the company's approach, Chawla said Gulf Oil is trying to emphasise mainly on the segment of passenger automotive where it has a low market share of just 4.5 percent.

“Our main focus is on the passenger car segment. Presently, we have a market share of only 4.5 percent. We have been able to witness a 12-13 percent growth rate in the past one year but our aim is to double this growth from current levels in the car segment,” he said.

He further said that the lubricant market in India is likely to grow at a rate of 2.5 percent whereas Gulf Oil was targeting a 7 percent growth.

"We are focusing to raise our share to 9-10 percent from the current level of 7 percent in open market sales,” he said.

The size of lubricants market in the country stands at about 2-3 million MT, out of which, a significant 40 percent share is cornered by the leading three PSUs (Public Sector Units) and the remaining by private players.