Indian oil major starts Servo brand production in Dubai

Servo is India's leading lubricant brand not only in terms of sales but also in terms of quality and range.

Indian Oil has made arrangements with BP Middle East for blending Servo lubricants in their plant in Jebel Ali.

A senior IOC official said the company made the arrangements for producing Servo lubricants in Jebel Ali for "cost effectiveness and logistical advantage to service the markets in Middle East and African countries."

He said the first batch of 20 KL litres of product was blended in the first week of January. According to him, the IOC will use Dubai as a hub to target other countries in the Middle East and African region.

The product will be officially launched soon and IOC will run a series of marketing campaigns to promote the product.

The move comes soon after IOC successfully test marketed its Servo brand of lubricants in the fiercely competitive Dubai market, he said.

IOC plans to blend approximately 500 Kilo litres of product for UAE and another 500 KL of product for other markets during the first year. The production is expected to double in the next year and IOC plans to raise the production to around 5,000 KL per annum in five years time.

The marketing of Servo Lubricants in Middle East and African markets will be undertaken by Luventis. Luventis is in the process of finalising dealers for various markets to establish Servo as premium brand of Lubricants in Middle East and African region.

IOC's Servo brand has a 42 per cent share of India's one million tonne; branded lubricants market, which is growing at 3 to 4 per cent annually. HPCL, Castrol and BPCL are the other major domestic players.

Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, India's flagship energy major, has posted an increase of 209 per cent in its net profit for the third quarter ended December 31, 2003 by registering Rs24 billion as compared to Rs7.7 billion during the corresponding quarter in the previous year.