Mumbai, 27 October 2020
Sandeep Sangwan, Managing Director, Castrol India Limited:
I am pleased to say that Castrol India has recorded a strong performance in the third quarter of 2020, while being focused on three priorities during this continuing pandemic – protecting our people, supporting communities and protecting the financial health of our business.
Partial revival of pent up demand, a robust supply chain and distribution network, investment in our brands along with judicious working capital management contributed to us delivering a good set of numbers, including growth across all spaces.
Our team has displayed exceptional commitment to ensure uninterrupted production at our three manufacturing plants, aligned with government safety and health advisories, to meet customer demand as well as new customer wins, acquisitions and virtual customer engagements have been made possible by teams working from home during the lockdown.
Robust working capital management which saw us generate INR 624 Crs net cash from operations in 9M 2020 which is more than 150% of PAT, along with judicious cost and efficiency management programmes have helped us maintain a current strong liquidity and financial position to be able to meet any near-term challenges.
We have focused on brand building initiatives this quarter with our power brands on television and digital media including Castrol Activ, Castrol CRB range and Castrol MAGNATEC.
Two new variants were launched in the cars and two-wheeler category with Castrol GTX SUV and Castrol Activ CRUISE respectively in the thinner oils segment.
Several external recognitions came our way during this quarter. Our Patalganga plant was recognized with the National Safety Council of India Award for its leadership and implementation of HSSE programmes while our Paharpur plant won a platinum award at the Apex India Occupational Health & Safety Awards 2020 and gold at the National Occupational Health & Safety Awards 2020 organized by Indian Chamber of Commerce. We also celebrated a double win at the prestigious Asia Pacific Effie Awards where our marketing campaigns for Castrol Super Mechanic and Castrol Activ nonstop democracy were recognized.
Similarly, we received accolades from our OEM clients with Ford recertifying the Silvassa plant with the Ford Q1 certification, making Silvassa plant the only lubricants plant in Asia Pacific region to hold this coveted award. Castrol India also received the highest rating in Schaeffler’s supplier evaluation on quality, delivery, environment and HSSE criteria.
In this quarter, we relaunched our CSR community programmes through virtual training initiatives for truckers and mechanics. The trainings have been modified bearing the pandemic in mind and focus on emotional and physical well-being, awareness on health and hygiene practices along with methods to effectively manage finances.
The business has been able to adapt and respond well to the dynamic external environment which is reflected in our third quarter results. The results also highlight our strong fundamentals and give us confidence that we are on track with our strategic sustained profitable business growth as and when economic activities return to normal.
The Board of Directors of the Company has at its meeting held on 27 October 2020 recommended an interim dividend of INR 2.50 per share (2019: First interim dividend INR 2.50 per share; Second interim dividend INR 3.00 per share). The record date for the purpose of said interim dividend is 6 November 2020 which would be paid on or before 26 November 2020.