Castrol set to open more 'Bikezones'

With lubricant major Castrol getting a good response and footfalls to its 'Castrol BikeZone' workshops in Bangalore and Chennai is now planning to roll out more shops and also has plans to enter another city.

Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Sudhanshu Vats, vice-president-marketing, Castrol India said "company has 16 shops presently in Bangalore and Chennai, will add 25 more in addition to rolling out to another city by 2006."

"For the roll out into another city, we are eyeing Pune, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, but we have not finalised it and these cities have a huge two-wheeler population," he added.

The company is also gearing up to launch a few more brands like 'Castrol Edge' and 'Castrol Motor Oils' for passenger cars and 'Castrol Wheeler Oils' for motorbikes.

"These are premium offerings and will be launched shortly under synthetic oils category," said Vats.

The company in the last two years has grown the original equipment manufacturing (OEMs) supply business in India. it recently signed up with Tata Motors, Mahindras, Maruti Udyog and Escorts Trucks.

As part of its marketing strategy revamp in India, the company has begun to simplify and classifying oil and lubricant brands under different heads like consumer trucks (freight trucks, bus and tractors), passenger automotive segment (cars and light commercial vehicles), motorcycles, heavy duty trucks and original equipment manufacturing (OEMs) supply business.

The Indian retail automotive market is estimated around 88.2 crore (Rs 882 million) litres valued at Rs 7,000 crore (Rs 70 billion).

Of this Castrol India's share is 30 per cent and has been growing at 4 per cent annually for the last 3 years.

The market is dominated by public sector oil companies like Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum and it is turning more competitive with the entry of multinational oils companies like Shell, elf Total and Mobil.

"To face off this challenge, we have adopted the concept of brand ambassadors. For motorcycle brands (two wheelers), we have roped in John Abraham for he is a motorcycle enthusiast and youth icon," said Vats.

"For Castrol brands we have roped in cricketer Rahul Dravid for he is a perfect fit for dependability and winning performance," he added.