The Hindu Business Line : Gulf Oil plans to diversify into car care products

AUTOMOTIVE lubricants company Gulf Oil Corporation plans to diversify into selling car care products and automobile accessories such as batteries, tyres and car parts.

The company, which has already entered into an agreement with Essar Oil for marketing its car care products through its upcoming network of retail outlets, is now in talks with Bharat Petroleum Corporation for a similar arrangement.

The company plans to add 1,000 new distributors to its chain within the next year-and-a-half for pushing these products through retail points across the country, Mr V. Ramesh, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, told newspersons here. Gulf Oil has a network of 600 distributors across India, which in turn reaches 18,000-20,000 supply points.

The lubricants business in the country has undergone rapid changes in the last couple of years. The number of long-term agreements for supplying lubes to automobile producers has depleted and the retail market has seen price and packaging wars. As a buffer to these changes, Gulf Oil plans to strengthen its retail network to use it for marketing "any product".

"We will increasingly focus on retailing as it forms 80 per cent of our sales mix. Industrial sales form the other 20 per cent. The idea is to use our marketing network to not only sell lubes but also car care products and accessories," Mr Ramesh said.

Meanwhile, the company is also increasing filling capacity at its 75,000-tonnes lubes blending plant at Silvassa and is likely to invest close to Rs 5.5 crore on implementing its expansion plan.

The company is also increasing its presence through exports. It will be exporting lubes to Indonesia, Maldives, Sudan and small quantities to Afghanistan. It is also looking at opportunities in Sri Lanka, Laos and Myanmar, which may soon allow foreign competition. Gulf Oil recently formed a 51:49 joint venture with Oil Bangladesh Ltd to start lube blending operations.

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