India’s Top 500 Companies 2022

INDIA’S TOP 500 COMPANIES 2022 48 Experts’ View Tell us about Gulf Oil Lubricants journey in the Indian market thus far. Gulf Oil Lubricants India Limited (Gulf Oil) is one the fastest growing brands among private sector players and has consistently outperformed the industry growth by more than 2x-3x times for the past decade now, leading to healthy improvement in its market share. During the period, not only did the company’s market share double but the company also delivered a PBT growth of more than 25% CAGR. Gulf Oil is among the top three private sectors players in terms of volume and brand recall. The company has built scalable and strong business models across B2C & B2B segments. Gulf Oil has worked with various existing & new Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and has recorded a rise from 2 OEMs to 30 OEMS. What are the factors that have contributed to your company’s success? What would be your key strategic priorities going forward? Our carefully selected segment-wise approach has strongly positioned our brands, products and services and helped the company garner double-digit growth year after year even though the industry volumes have grown in single digits. Strategies to provide innovative products, consistent investments in brand building, nurturing partnerships with OEMs, working in sync with our channel partners, adding B2B customers across industries, expanding urban & rural distribution network strength, adding new channels and building amotivated teamhave added to the company’s growth trajectory. We expect the Indian lubricants market to grow well in the next 10-15 years and Gulf Oil will continue to focus on its chosen segments, launch more value added and fit for purpose products and increase market shares across segments and geographies where we have ample growth opportunities. Strong focus on long term value creation, people-centric and customer-centric initiatives, increasing digitalization practices, rationalizing costs, robust EV play strategy along with focus on reboot and business transformation are few priority areas which will help the company grow sustainably in future. What is your company’s ESG roadmap and what are some of the key green initiatives taken by your company in recent years? Gulf Oil at the global level is working towards its ESG priorities and also making them an integral part of its culture and DNA. At this stage, net carbon reduction targets for 2025, 2030 and 2050 have been set for Gulf Oil. The company has been at the forefront in development of environmentally friendly and sustainable products for its customers such as pioneering the long drain interval lubricants in India, eg 80,000 kms oil change interval in Diesel Engine Oils, and more recently in keeping with long term goals an environmentally friendly range of AdBlue products and Electric Vehicle Fluids have also been launched in India. A key focus area in the company’s environment stewardship has been around preserving water bodies, in 2021 two lakes in Southern India were restored – Lake Thamaraikulam and Lake Sathan Kadu. The company has significantly reduced its energy consumption through commissioning of rooftop solar panels at plants to provide ~50% of energy consumption for manufacturing, and further reduced the same through online monitoring systems and motion sensors. Other green initiatives include reducing plastic consumption through packaging weight optimization, replacing corrugated carton covers with reusable gunny material, using STP treated water for horticulture activities etc. GULF OIL LUBRICANTS INDIA LIMITED Ravi Chawla MD & CEO Dun & Bradstreet