Castrol India is India’s largest lubricant company, selling 8 litres of engine oil, grease, or coolant every second into a market that makes up a tenth of the world’s demand. It has operated in the country since 1910, became a listed company in 1983, and has been part of the bp group since 2000 - a 115‑year presence that has made it what it calls “India’s most trusted lubricant brand”. The recurring approach is to build deep, sticky relationships with the mechanics and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who decide which lubricant goes into an engine, then supply them through a distribution network that now reaches over 150,000 retail outlets and 40,000 rural touchpoints - a model the company itself describes as “Growing with discipline. Delivering with consistency”. # Business segments Five engines at different stages - a hydrocarbon cash cow, two consumer platforms at national scale, and a green-energy bet under construction - each built with the cash flows of the one before. ## 1. Automotive lubricants: the backbone that funds everything else **The company holds the #1 market share across automotive categories in India, built on a century of brand trust, relationships with over 90 OEMs, and a distribution network that touches more than 150,000 retail outlets - this is the engine that generates the cash for every other segment.** - **Sells to every vehicle type** - the portfolio spans engine oils, transmission fluids, greases, and coolants for passenger cars, two-wheelers, commercial vehicles, and electric vehicles, with distinct brands for each tier: Castrol EDGE for super-premium cars (claiming 30% better performance), Castrol MAGNATEC for mass-prestige, Castrol Activ for two-wheelers, and Castrol CRB TURBOMAX+ for trucks, tested for 100,000 km on Indian OEM vehicles. - **OEM relationships lock in demand** - over 90 OEM customers use Castrol as factory-fill or recommend it for aftermarket service, including a five-year tie-up with Hero Motors (the world’s largest two-wheeler maker) and a 50-year partnership with Sriram Pistons, so the brand is specified at the point of manufacture and reinforced at every service interval. - **Mechanics are the real gatekeepers** - the company has tapped 700,000 mechanics through digital platforms and trained roughly 290,000 under its Eklavya programme since 2009, because in India the mechanic’s recommendation is often the deciding factor in which lubricant a customer buys. - **A distribution moat that is hard to replicate** - over 400 distributors and 950 sub-distributors serve more than 150,000 retail outlets across all 28 states and 8 union territories, a physical network that has been built over decades and gives the company reach into semi-urban and rural markets that newer entrants cannot easily match. - **Digital tools make the network stickier** - platforms like Castrol FASTSCAN (1.5 lakh-plus scans per day, 50 million-plus digital transactions) and Castrol SMART (15,000-plus sales calls a day) give mechanics and retailers real-time access to product information, loyalty rewards, and claims processing, embedding Castrol into their daily workflow. ## 2. Industrial lubricants and services: the high-touch, high-stickiness engine **The industrial business delivers double-digit growth by selling application-specific fluids and turnkey chemical management services to factories, steel mills, and data centres - a segment where the product is inseparable from the service, making it costly for customers to switch.** - **Sells solutions, not just fluids** - the portfolio includes metalworking fluids (Castrol Hysol, Alusol), rust preventives (Castrol Rustilo), gear oils (Castrol Optigear), and cleaning fluids (Castrol Techniclean), each formulated for a specific industrial process, so the value lies in the application know-how as much as the chemical itself. - **Chemical Management Services create lock-in** - at 23 sites, Castrol takes over end-to-end lubricant management for the customer on a turnkey basis, managing the entire chemical life cycle; the CMS India team has operated for 11 years without a lost-time injury (about 5 million manhours), a safety record that builds deep trust with industrial clients. - **Made in India, for Indian applications** - the company localises and customises products at its Patalganga Technical Centre rather than simply importing global formulations, which lets it tailor fluids for Indian operating conditions and win business in sectors like textiles, where the Silvassa plant holds GOTS certification for textile-specific lubricants. - **Serves close to 3,700 institutional accounts directly** - demand correlates with the Index of Industrial Production, so the business rides India’s manufacturing growth while deliberately avoiding commoditised segments where it has no differentiation. ## 3. Service and maintenance network: the branded retail storefront **Castrol operates over 800 franchised multi-brand car workshops and has tapped 34,000 independent bike workshops, turning service bays into a direct consumer channel that sells lubricants, auto-care products, and now insurance - a platform that builds brand loyalty at the point of repair.** - **Castrol Auto Service is a franchise network, not a company-owned chain** - 800-plus multi-brand workshops across 300-plus towns operate under the Castrol brand and standards, using Castrol products exclusively, which gives the company a branded retail presence without the capital intensity of owning real estate. - **Two-wheeler service is a volume play** - Castrol Express Oil Change offers a sub-20-minute oil change at Jio-bp fuel stations, while 34,000 independent bike workshops have been brought into the Castrol ecosystem, creating thousands of points where a two-wheeler owner encounters the brand at the moment of service. - **Rural reach through mobile kiosks** - roughly 700 portable Castrol Rural Service Express units now operate as mobile bike-maintenance kiosks in villages, solving the problem that a permanent workshop is uneconomic in low-density rural areas. - **Insurance adds a new revenue layer** - through a partnership with Mahindra Insurance Brokers, eligible Castrol Auto Service workshops can now sell motor insurance policies and register as cashless claim sites, turning the workshop into a point of sale for financial products. - **The ki Mobility stake is a strategic option on digital platforms** - a 7.09% investment in ki Mobility Solutions (part of the TVS group, operating the myTVS brand with 3 million customers across 1,000 garages) gives Castrol a window into a digitally integrated, multi-brand service platform that could shape how India’s aftermarket evolves. ## 4. Electric vehicle fluids and future fuels: the green-energy bet under construction **Two out of three of the world’s major car manufacturers use Castrol EV fluids, and in India the company already supplies e-fluids to a majority of leading battery-electric vehicle OEMs - a small business today, but one that positions the company for the energy transition without abandoning the internal combustion engine.** - **EV fluids are a direct extension of lubricant science** - the Castrol ON range includes EV transmission fluids, coolants, and greases, all designed to help electric vehicles “go further, charge faster, and last longer”; the chemistry is different from engine oil, but the OEM-approval model is the same one Castrol has mastered. - **Already embedded with Indian EV makers** - supply agreements exist with two leading electric vehicle OEMs, and the company is collaborating with two-wheeler EV manufacturers on battery cooling and battery management systems, so it is building relationships now that will scale as EV adoption grows. - **Training mechanics for the transition** - over 1,000 mechanics have been trained for EV readiness through an ASDC-certified curriculum, ensuring that the mechanic network - Castrol’s core distribution advantage - stays relevant as the vehicle parc changes. - **Circularity is the next frontier** - the company introduced India’s first engine oil blended with locally procured Re-Refined Base Oil in 2025 and signed an MoU with HPCL to explore a nationwide ecosystem for collecting and re-refining used lubricating oil, turning a waste stream into a raw-material source. # Group structure and partners **Castrol India is a standalone listed company with no subsidiaries, 51% held by Castrol Limited UK - itself part of the bp group - though bp has agreed to sell a 65% stake in the global Castrol business to Stonepeak, a transaction that does not alter Castrol India’s day-to-day operations, strategy, or market presence.** - **A pure-play listed entity** - incorporated in 1979 and listed for over 40 years, the company has no subsidiaries, associates, or joint ventures; its promoter is Castrol Limited UK, which is 100% held by Castrol Group Holdings Limited, an indirect subsidiary of BP p.l.c.. - **The Stonepeak transaction is a change of ownership, not operations** - in December 2025, bp agreed to sell a 65% shareholding in Castrol’s global lubricants business to Stonepeak (with bp retaining 35%) at an enterprise value of approximately USD 10 billion; the deal triggers a mandatory open offer to Castrol India’s public shareholders for 26% of the equity, but the company itself continues as a strong independent listed entity with no change in structure, strategy, or customer commitments. - **Strategic alliances extend reach without capital outlay** - key partnerships include Jio-bp (Castrol lubricants available across over 1,350 fuel forecourts), Mahindra Insurance Brokers (motor insurance sales through workshops), 3M India (vehicle care products), HPCL (re-refined base oil ecosystem), and VinFast Auto India (after-sales support for EV owners), each adding a capability or channel without requiring Castrol to build it from scratch.