Spain's Repsol targets 5% market share in Indian auto lubricant market

Repsol forayed into the Indian market last year through a tie-up with GP Petroleums

Spanish automotive lubricants giant Repsol, which forayed into the Indian market last year through a tie-up with GP Petroleums (GPPL), has said that the company aims to grab five per cent market share in the automotive space in the next 10 years.

GPPL, a subsidiary of UAE-based Gulf Petrochemicals, had tied up with Repsol in 2016 April to produce and retail the products of the Spanish company in India. “We want to capitalise on the growth in the two-wheeler segment in India. From being not present in Indian market till last year, we expect to grab a share of at least 5 per cent in the automotive segment in the next 10 years,” said Orlando Carbo Conte, Repsol’s Global Director of Lubricants.  

The total consumption of petroleum products in India stood at 184.7 million tonnes (MT) in 2015-16, out of which lubes had two per cent share of 3.6 MT.  "Indian market is growing at an annual rate of 2.5 per cent per annum, while we expect a double-digit growth for the next 10 years," he said. GPPL already had one per cent of the market share in the lubricant space, mainly owing to its industrial brand Ipol. Out of its overall production in India, 90 per cent was industrial lubricants and about 10 per cent was only automotive lubricants. It has now forayed into the diesel lubricant space too to capture the increasing automotive market.  

"We decided to tie up with global majors and thus entered into a tie-up with Repsol. In the past six months, we have doubled our sales. We have lined up massive retail expansion plans too. We are doubling our distributor network from 90 to 180 in the next six months," said Hari Prakash M, chief executive officer of GPPL. Prakash added that it is manufacturing Repsol at its existing units in Vasai and Daman. "We have a capacity of 80 million litre, which is enough to meet the needs of Indian market," Prakash said.