12 June 2020, Mumbai:
Sandeep Sangwan, Managing Director, Castrol India Limited:
“The first quarter of 2020 has been unprecedented with an overall slowdown in the economy, liquidity crunch as well as the break-out of the global Covid-19 pandemic. As a result of which, the overall lubricant industry in the country has been hit by severe demand and supply disruptions.
Castrol India was resilient and stepped up in managing this extraordinary situation with three clear objectives - protecting people, supporting communities and protecting the financial health of our business.
We have taken various measures to support employees, support staff, distributors and suppliers during these difficult times as #IndiaFightsCorona. We have also stepped up and made contributions to impacted communities in several ways. Our CSR efforts have been focused on helping government hospitals, essential service workers, mechanics, truckers, migrant
workers and labourers affected by the crisis.
We continue to work on numerous cost control actions, working capital management as well as efficiency programmes to drive margins and protect our finances.
As part of our strategic delivery, we sustained our efforts to drive consumer communication and customer acquisition across key geographies and markets. We renewed our long-term partnership with JCB, the largest off-road vehicle manufacturer in India. Readying ourselves for a low carbon future, we entered into agreements for EV fluids with OEMs in India including MG Motors and Tata Motors, as well as to supply lubricants to various OEMs for their BS-VI compliant vehicles.
We continue to monitor the dynamic nature of the ongoing crisis and evolve to protect the health and long-term sustainability of our business. Our current strong liquidity position gives us confidence to be able to meet the near-term challenges. We are committed to our overall strategy and growth agenda which will help us realise our potential when normalcy is restored.”
The Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held today i.e. 12 June 2020 approved that the 42nd Annual General Meeting of the Company will be held on 15 July 2020.