Castrol India announces 1Q 2021 (January to March) results

Robust financial delivery in 1Q 2021

 Mumbai, 26 April 2021

Sandeep Sangwan, managing director, Castrol India Limited: Castrol India Limited reported a strong financial delivery in 1Q 2021 building on a resilient second half performance for FY 2020. We delivered robust revenue and profit growth with 1Q revenue from operations @ INR 1139 crores (66% higher) and 1Q Profit Before Tax @ INR 332 crores (96% higher) versus 1Q 2020 which saw the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic and resultant business slow down beginning March 2020.

Focused investments, interventions and actions taken in the second half of 2020 towards brand building with increased marketing and advertising spends, new product introductions as well as corrective pricing have yielded a positive impact on overall topline growth. This has been aided by improving demand trends especially in tractor and SUV sales in 1Q 2021.

Strengthening our network and expanding our footprint, as well as building our participation in digital market platforms, we entered into a strategic collaboration with ki Mobility Solutions Private Limited to supply lubricant products to ki Mobility workshops in India and also be available on goBumpr, their digital platform.

Our cost efficiency programmes and judicious working capital management efforts led to healthy cash from operations @ INR 269 crores in the quarter, which is equivalent to 1.1 times of Profit After Tax.

While we continue to focus on fundamental building blocks to deliver sustainable profitable growth keeping safety of our teams as our top priority, our plants continued to operate safely deploying Covid-19 safety processes and guidelines as laid out by local governments. Our Patalganga plant won recognition from the National Safety Council for the second consecutive year for its strong safety performance.

The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India is resulting in a market slowdown in various parts of the country. In addition, supply disruptions on account of base oil and raw materials availability, logistics challenges and rupee depreciation are likely to adversely impact demand and supply. The management is keeping a close watch on the situation and responding with appropriate actions as needed.