IOC plans retail thrust

Mumbai: Indian Oil Corporation has shored up its sales in fiscal 2003-04 to its 2001-02 levels. Addressing a press conference in Mumbai on tth April, D G Kannan, director marketing, said, "We have achieved sales of 46.23 million tonnes in 2003-04 as against the 45.35 MT in the preceding year and have reached the level of 46.21 mt achieved in 2001-02."

The state-owned oil major will invest about Rs3,000 crore in 2004-05, of which Rs1,350 crore would be for retail initiatives. It will add over 1,000 retail outlets in the new fiscal to take the total number of outlets to over 10,000 from the current 9,155, Kannan said. He added that IOC had commissioned about 1,122 outlets in the last fiscal against 228 in 2002-03. The company would also upgrade 1,000 retail outlets to give them a retail visual identity and roll out 123 flagship retail outlets.

IOC will also spend Rs258 crore to augment its operations. It will add six new bottling plants with a combined capacity of 232 tmt per annum at Gurgaon, Etawah, Una and Chengelpeth and set up of four top of points at Ratlam, Trichy, Chittorgarh and Jaisidh..

Kannan also disclosed that IOC was looking for opportunities in Africa and South East Asia including Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. In Malaysia IOC would acquire the assets of British Petroleum, while in Mauritius, it would open ten outlets by September, this year, he added.