Lube Firms Tie Up With Oems To Hike Market Share

Lubricant companies have started tying up with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to enhance their market share in the countrys overcrowded lubes market.

Savita Chemicals, which has a technical tie-up with Idemitsu Kosan of Japan to blend the latters autmotive brands, has arranged to supply lubricant oil for Kinetic Honda two-wheelers, Bharat Shell has an agreement with Thermax, Gulf Oil is catering to the requirements of Ashok Leyland and has an arrangement with Mahindra and Mahindra, and Indian Oil has arranged to supply oil to Telco service stations.

The lube companies are of the view that the tie-up with OEMs lends respectability to their products and helps in their image-building.

 

The concept of OEM recommended oils, better known as `genuine oils, is widely prevalent in Japan where car manufacturers specify in their service manual the oil brand to be used in their cars. Such service manual recommendations are learnt to influence customer choice to a great extent.

Moreover, the manufacturers are going in for highly specialised products to sustain the squeeze in margins. The consumer is not only being wooed by a plethora of products, but quality too has undergone a substantial improvement.

Lubricants are now multigrade as these are being increasingly used for other applications like removal of contamination, insulation, power transmission and anti-corrosive operations.

While upgrading their existing products, most of the manufacturers are now concentrating on developing new products as well.