Gulf Oil aims at robust growth; to focus on car segment

Multinational lubricant major Gulf Oil Lubricants today said it is aiming at robust organic growth over the next few years and planning to pump Rs 150 crore in its new facility in Chennai.
The company also said that it will sharpen its focus on passenger automotive segment.
"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," Gulf Oil managing director Ravi Chawla said.
The company had ramped up its first plant at Silvassa to 90,000 MT from 75,000 MT recently at a capital expenditure of Rs 40-45 crore.

Speaking about the company's strategy, Chawla said they are trying to focus sharply on the passenger automotive segment where its market share is low to 4.5 per cent.
"Our focus is on passenger car segment. Our current market share is 4.5 per cent. We have able to grow at 12-13 per cent in the last one year but we are aiming to double the growth from present levels in car segment," he said.

Indian lubricant market set to grow at 2.5 per cent while Gulf Oil was aiming at 7 per cent growth, he said.
"We are trying to increase our share to 9-10 per cent from 7 per cent from the open market sales segment," Chawla said.

Lube market size stands at around 2-3 million MT, and of which 40 per cent is cornered by the three PSUs and rest by the private players.
Asked about margins, Chawla said last fiscal the margin was 16.5 per cent but maintaining it in the current fiscal could be difficult as costs were rising.
The company is striving to maintain the margin with combination of quality, branding and pricing.