Comments
Tide Water Oil Co (India) Ltd has re-launched its Veedol branded automotive lubricants in the North and South American markets. For North America, it has selected a marketing licensee and for the South American market, it has floated a step-down marketing subsidiary. “Veedol International Americas Inc has been floated as a wholly owned subsidiary of Veedol International Ltd, UK, and the 100 per cent subsidiary of Tide Water Oil, which owns the rights to market Veedol in 120 countries across the globe,” Kallol Datta, Tide Water Oil’s Chairman, told BusinessLine . He added that the new step-down subsidiary of Tide Water Oil would market Veedol products in the Andean region of South America, consisting of Columbia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile.
Datta said Veedol International Ltd has also licensed the Veedol brand to a licensee in North America. It has also signed a licensing agreement with an entity for Bangladesh.
“We have appointed a tolling and blending agent in Canada. We will test the American market through this outsourced supply arrangement in the initial years. We aim to set up our own unit after we have achieved a significant scale of turnover from these markets,” Datta said.
After the acquisition of Veedol International Ltd in October 2011 from BP Plc (formerly British Petroleum), Tide Water Oil got the global rights to a wide portfolio of registered trademarks for the master brand Veedol as well as its associated sub-brands and iconic logos.
Brand recallBP last served the American market with Veedol in 2007-08. According to industry sources, Veedol still has some brand and recall value in the Americas.
Tide Water has already re-established Veedol’s presence in Europe and West Asia by floating three separate region-specific step down marketing arms. Recently, it has expanded into Turkey.
Datta said the West Asian market, served through a tolling agent in the UAE, has turned profitable. “Veedol’s business in Europe, however, is yet to make profits,” he said.
Products manufactured at the Dutch and the UK units, respectively, are serving the company’s new markets in Turkey and Bangladesh.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.