Automotive lubricants giant Repsol plans to double its annual India sales over the next decade. The Spanish company, which operates through its Indian partner G.P. Petroleums Ltd. (GPPL), aims to capture 5% market share in the country’s automotive lubricant segment, a top GPPL official said.
“We entered into a technical process and marketing tie-up with Repsol last year to produce and sell their products in India,” said Hari Prakash M, CEO, GPPL. “Since, the base was small, we posted 100% growth. As we are experiencing exponential growth, these numbers would only grow over the years, he said.
Repsol forayed into the Indian market through its tie-up with the BSE-listed GPPL.
GPPL, which produces and sells IPOL brand of lubricants, recorded sales income of ₹460 crore last year.
“We have been selling Repsol lubricants in India without advertisement. Repsol is associated with Honda racing team and has won several races recently. [Due to this] interest in the product has picked up. Over a period of next 10 years, Repsol aims to capture 5% market share of automotive lubricants segment. For this, we are also planning to double the number of Repsol’s distributors to 160 by March 2018,” he said.
Production facilities
“Currently, we have two manufacturing facilities [that produce Repsol and IPOL lubricants] in Mumbai and Daman with an annual production capacity of 80,000 kilo litres. We sell close to 60,000 kilo litres. We expect to hit the full production capacity in three years,” said Mr. Prakash.
“That doesn’t mean, we will start our expansion programme only after three years. We have started the discussions. It might be acquisition of an existing unit or expansion. An ideal size is to have plant of 50,000 kilo litres to one lakh kilo litres. The minimum investment might be about ₹100 crore. But, we have not yet decided,” he said.
Repsol also unveiled its fully synthetic motorcycle oils in India for bikes above 150 CC. Besides, it also rolled out Repsol elite formula super 15W40 for passenger cars and Repsol diesel super turbo 15W40 CH 4 for commercial vehicles.