Three new automotive lubricants from the Castrol brand, Castrol Edge, Castrol Magnatec and Castrol GTX Essential, were launched into the Nigerian market on October 6, 2017 in Lagos by Eterna Plc, Castrol’s exclusive distributor in Nigeria.
The occasion was attended by Castrol executives from various parts of the world, such as Castrol’s Regional Marketing director, Europe and Africa, Irene Quero, among others and top management of Eterna Plc including its Managing Director, Mahmud Tukur.
Castrol is a world-leading lubricant brand, renowned for a number of high performance products such as Castrol Edge, Castrol Magnatec and Castrol Power 1. Eterna Plc, on the other hand, is a homegrown Nigerian company founded by Otunba Tunji Lawal Solarin.
Eterna, which started importing and distributing Castrol lubricants in Nigeria in 1991, hit a milestone in August 2017 with Castrol GTX Essential, its first product to be produced in Nigeria at its Sagamu blending plant.
According to executives and management of both companies, the new Castrol GTX variant was developed in response to specific market requirements for Nigeria and therefore is positioned as a brand that meets manufacturer engine specifications.
Eterna’s Managing Director, Mahmud Tukur said: “A key milestone is the production of Castrol GTX Essential at our plant. This completes the robust engine lubricant portfolio suitable for use across Nigeria’s vast range of cars both old and new, and to suit our variable fuel and road conditions.”
Speaking about the partnership between the two companies, Tukur further said: “We are extremely proud of our partnership with the inventors of ‘lubrication’ Castrol, a company which had been in the business for more than 100 years and continues to be a global leader”.
Eterna PLC, the first fully indigenous oil-marketing company to be listed on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), is the only company licensed to manufacture and distribute all Castrol products in Nigeria and now has four of the Castrol brands in its portfolio.
Eterna’s blending facility built in 1995 with a $940,000 loan from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is located in Sagamu, Ogun State, is one of the only three Castrol accredited blending plants in Africa The state-of-the-art lube manufacturing plant, which is fully owned through its subsidiary Eterna Industries Limited,. The Plant is located in Sagamu, Ogun State on a sprawling 5 hectares of Prime Industrial Real Estate.
The Plant is equipped with state-of-the-art laboratory that undertake oil analysis as part of the company’s customer support service.
According to Tukur: “Our plant in Sagamu has an installed capacity of 15,000MT per 8 hour shift, if we run a 24hour operations we can easily achieve 45,000Mt. Coupled with the on-going investments of over $4Million in the next few years on facility upgrades and introduction of global best practices our plant and laboratory would become the best in the sub region and relevant for years to come.”
Following the launch on Friday, October 6, the company’s marketing team started a series of mechanic roadshows targeted at local mechanics and designed to familiarize them with Castrol range of products.
The company has also encouraged small entrepreneurs to set-up kiosks selling its lubricants.