IOC: Insurance products, Oil & Chemist shops

Company in talks with Reliance Capital, Apollo Pharmacy to offer new services at outlets.

Now, besides buying FMCG and food items at fuel retail outlets, you could also get yourself and your vehicle insured and buy that medicine to cure your headache.

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the country's largest marketer of petroleum products, is planning to offer insurance products and open pharmacy chains at its fuel retail outlets, for which it is in talks with Reliance Capital and Apollo Pharmacy.

The government-owned company is facing almost Rs 5,000 crore of retail losses this financial year. The industry's retail losses could be as much as Rs 11,000 crore after taking into account government-issued oil bonds and discounts by upstream oil companies such as Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and GAIL India.

"We are looking at all formats of non-fuel retail. This way, we hope to negate some of that retail loss we are facing," a senior IOC executive said.

Many interested companies, which offer both life and non-life insurance products, and pharmacy chains have begun talks with IOC, the country's largest company by sales. "Reliance Capital for insurance and Apollo Pharmacy for medicine retail are among them," the executive said.

The company will start offering these retail formats in 80 of its fuel outlets across the country in March this year. "After that, we will go ahead in a big way," the executive said.

Another government-owned oil marketing company, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL), is also betting big on non-fuel retail.

"That is certainly on our radar. We have tied up with (fast-food chain) McDonald's and are looking for more avenues," the company's Marketing Director S Roy Choudhary said.

Revenues from non-fuel retail for government-owned oil marketing companies are currently minimal. "Shell India earns almost 40 per cent of its retail revenues from non-fuel retail at its outlets. We need to tap that too," an executive of the third government-owned marketing company, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), said.

Shell operates around 35 fuel retail outlets, mostly in south India. It now plans to open a few more in Maharashtra.

IOC, which owns over 16,000 outlets, hopes to take its revenues from non-fuel retail to "at least" Rs 3,000 crore over the next 4 to 5 years. The company posted net sales of Rs 185,987.62 crore in the last financial year.

Reliance Capital, an Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group company, has interests in asset management and mutual funds, life and general insurance, distribution of financial products, private equity and stock broking, among others.

Apollo Pharmacy is a division of Apollo Hospitals Enterprises. It is one of the country's largest branded pharmacy networks, with over 300 outlets in key locations, the company's website says.