Indian grease and lubricant producer Balmer Lawrie said it plans to double its domestic market share in the next five years through expanded manufacturing capacity and more aggressive marketing.
The Kolkata-based company announced last week that it will aggressively market its range of Balmerol-branded products, with a particular focus on retail sales of automotive lubes.
The expansion will be driven by an expansion and modernization plant involving all of its manufacturing facilities and a massive program to [leverage] and rapidly expand its distribution network, Balmers chairman and managing director, Viren Sinha, said in a press release last week.
The company has spent around 1.5 billion rupees (U.S. $24 million) on plant and marketing expansion projects in the past three years and will invest around 1 billion rupees more in its new five-year plan, The Telegraph reported this week.
In 2013, Balmer doubled its Silvassa plants capacity, from 13,000 metric tons per year to 28,000 t/y based on one shift per day. It then announced plans to double capacity at its 25,000 t/y Kolkata plant.
In addition to those facilities, Balmer operates a 13,700 t/ygrease and lubricants plant in Chennai, a 6,900 t/y plant in Mumbai, and a research and development laboratory at its Kolkata headquarters.
Sinha told The Telegraph the company holds 2 percent of the countrys lubricants and grease market. India consumed about 2.3 million tons of lubricants, including greases, in 2014 when demand grew at 1.1 percent for the third consecutive year, according to Kline & Co. consultants.