Profits at Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd. have more than doubled in the past three years, thanks in part to the development of a broad, multi-tiered sales network, officials said in an investors presentation last month.
Profits before taxes reached Rs 243 crore (Rs 2.43 billion or U.S. $35.5 million) in fiscal year 2017-18, which ended March 31, up from Rs 116 crore in 2014-15. Sales volumes rose from 61,150 metric tons per year to 85,430 t/y during that time, the company said in a June 18 presentation.
The company opened a second blending plant in 2017, a facility in Chennai with capacity to 50,000 t/y of lubes. Its older plant in Mumbai has capacity of 90,000 t/y. The company, which is part of the Hinduja conglomerate, also has supply hubs in Kolkata, Gurgaon, Lucknow and Bangalore.
For automotive lubricants Gulf has a network of more than 300 distributors and more than 60,000 retail locations. It supplies industrial lubes through more than 50 distributors and to more than 200 directly supplied customers. In addition it has more than 500 customers in the mining, transportation and infrastructure construction industries.
Officials said the company is trying to boost sales in urban areas by using a branding campaign to expand the number of service shops that carry its oils. The network currently includes more than 7,000 shops for motorcycles and more than 1,300 for cars. In rural areas its strategy is to develop a second layer of stockists, which currently number some 550.
Domestic sales account for 97 to 98 percent of volumes, the company said. Sixty to 65 percent of domestic sales are in the automotive channel and the remainder in the companys business-to-business channel, which includes industrial, mining, fleet and marine customers.