IndianOil plans to ramp up non-oil retail business
Kolkata   12-Oct-2007
IndianOil, the country's largest oil marketing company (OMC), has, decided to step up its presence in the non-oil retail business. The company is slated to add another 1,000-odd rural marketing outlets or 'Kisan Seva Kendras' across the country by March 2008. It has a 1,400-strong network of rural outlets across the country. "Of this, our target is to add 40 new outlets across West Bengal in 2007-08. This will be in addition to 20 existing rural outlets,' Debasis Sen, GM and state level coordinator at IndianOil, told ET. The rural outlets have turned out to be a huge success for the oil major. Stung by rising 'under recovery losses' on account of high international oil prices, OMCs, which have large retail estate either on their own or on franchisee-basis, are increasingly stepping up their non-fuel retail business. To promote the non-fuel business, each pump has a shopping mall offering a wide range of products, including seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, consumables and banking facilities. The average cost of setting up each such outlet is pegged at Rs 10-12 lakh. IndianOil has tie-ups with a range of corporate both in FMCG and finance sector, Emami, Dabur, IFCI and ICICI Bank, like for these outlets. IndianOil, which has recently tied up with IRCTC for sale of railway tickets through petrol pumps, has covered 250 outlets by virtue of this tie up in. states like Tamil Nadu, Punjab; Gujarat It has also decided to add some 25 to 30 new oil retail outlets across these states. IndianOil has also recently launched Servo Xpress, a quick makeover counter for vehicles. To-promote its branded fuel XtraPremium (petrol) and XtraMile (diesel), IndianOil has launched a scheme offering instant gifts for purchase of petrol worth Rs 500 and diesel worth Rs 1,000 across 32 select petrol pumps in the city during the festive period between October 10 and November 9, 2007. Customers can also win mega prizes from TVS and LG.