GP Petroleums bets on early mover advantage in BS VI era

GP Petroleums, part of the UAE-based GP Global Group, is gearing up for the BS VI era, and bets on early mover advantage on the back of its diesel exhaust fluid additive, christened ‘Clear Blue’.

Clear Blue is a solution made up of urea and water, which is injected into the vehicles exhaust system before nitrogen oxide comes out of the tail pipe. This solution when fed into the exhaust, reacts with the nitrogen oxide gas and breaks it down into harmless nitrogen and oxygen. And at higher temperatures this solution turns into ammonia, which breaks down nitrogen oxide in the process, resulting in reduction in volume of particles being emitted is significantly.

GP is positioning the new offering for the CV segment, where it states being an early entrant in a huge market offers a vast opportunity. The company believes that despite the market being nascent, the competition will favour the ones who invest early.

The company formerly known as Sah Petroleums, manufactured industrial and automotive oils, and in 2014 it was acquired by GP Global Group.

Lubricant play

GP Petroleums, currently states it has a robust share of around four to five percent in the industrial lubricant segment, and looks to make strides in the highly competitive auto lubricant segment where from the current share of one percent to five percent.

In the auto lubricant market, it is currently is competing in two segment of the automotive lubricant market, the mass-volume market with its Ipol brand and in the premium market with the Repsol range of products.

Hari Prakash M, CEO, GP Petroleums, reveals that while the company has a strong brand Ipol in India for a long time and the tie-up with Spanish-lubricant company for manufacturing and marketing the Repsol brand in India shows its aggressive play in the Indian market.  

Repsol which already has a strategic tie-up with Honda racing, is something what Prakash feels resonates its premium position in the market. “In the last five years they Repsol Honda has won four out of five championships. So we are not really surprised wherever we went people already knew the Repsol brand, it did not need any introduction.”

The company states it sees India as a very mystic market where one does not need get things easily, one needs to work hard towards getting market share. Prakash explains that while Repsol has been looked more as a two-wheeler lubricant product, the brand has a vast product portfolio including for passenger vehicles and diesel vehicles too. The company is also optimistic on its Ipol brand for driving business, in fact the company states it is already in advanced stages for meeting the BS VI standards.

Prakash reveals that the company is also looking at expansion for which it has already received board approval. “We are already looking at some organic expansion and looking at some sort of assets in other parts of India, if we need to increase the capacity. We have got the board approval for another new plant, but we are exploring all the options.”

GP Petroleums is also looking towards expanding its distribution network from the current 80 to 200 by end of FY2018 on the back of doubling of its marketing budget.