MAM
Castrol unveils new marketing strategy; ropes in Dravid & Abraham as brand ambassadors
BANGALORE: In a bid to increase their market share and stave off competition from new entrants, India’s largest player in the retail automotive lubricant market, Castrol India (CIL) has planned a new marketing strategy, revealed CIL vice president -marketing Sudhanshu Vats.
Vats spoke to Indiantelevision.com on the sidelines of a press conference for the release of CIL brand ambassador and Indian cricket captain Rahul Dravid’s biography The Nice Guy Who finished First by Mumbaikar Devendra Prabhudesai.
The book was unveiled by Indian cricket coach Greg Chappell, who was the chief guest.
Vats elaborated on the initiatives by his company. Firstly, CIL re-launched the Castrol master brand with a new thought and logo ‘Its not just oil, it’s liquid engineering.’
Next, they’ve simplified product brand architecture – migrated their 15-16 sub-brands under five categories: (a) Consumer trucks- this cover fleets, transportation, buses, tractors, LCV’s. (b) Passenger cars (c) Motor cycles (d) Heavy Duty – this is a B2B category that caters to fleet owners, off-highway vehicles such as JCB, Komastu, Caterpillar, building construction, state transport undertakings, and (e) OEM franchisee workshops.
Thirdly, along with Dravid who has been Castrol brand ambassador for the last six years; bike enthusiast, youth icon and cine star John Abraham is the new brand ambassador for their motorcycle oil.
Also, CIL has started strengthening partnerships with vehicle manufacturers, OEMs’. This includes their recently renewed partnership for five years with Tata Motors. Other OEMs’ with whom they have a tie-up include Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti.
CIL has also taken the entire Liquid Engineering concept to the consumers through road shows, above and below the line activities, dealer meets, etc. The company has also tied up with Reliance and Essar for selling CIL lubricants at their retail fuel stations.
Castrol has increased its market share over the last two to three years from 26 per cent to 30 per cent of the Rs 70 billion retail automotive lubricant market through a 40,000 dealer network and indirectly through 80,000 dealers of the 110,000 retail automotive lubricant dealers in India.
The company spends around Rs 1.5 billion annually for product promotion activities that include print and other media ads, TVCs’, above and below the line ground activities. Oglivy & Mather handles the creative business, while MindShare handles the media.
MAM
Ember Cookware appoints Amit Singh as chief of supply chain
10-year veteran to lead operations as brand scales across D2C, quick commerce and retail.
MUMBAI: Ember just handed its supply chain the perfect seasoning because when your cookware is non-toxic and non-stick, the operations behind it better be fast and flawless. Ember Cookware has appointed Amit Singh as chief of supply chain and Services, bolstering its leadership team at a pivotal growth phase. Singh brings over a decade of experience in supply chain strategy, operations and large-scale network buildouts.
He began his career at Singapore-based retail giant Giant Hypermarket before joining Pharmeasy in 2015, where he played a foundational role in building and scaling its pan-India supply chain across B2B and B2C channels. At API Holdings, he later led supply chain operations for North India, managing end-to-end execution across complex, multi-city networks.
In his new role, Amit will oversee Ember’s complete supply chain and service ecosystem including sourcing, manufacturing coordination, logistics, last-mile delivery, post-purchase support and workforce development. His mandate focuses on building cost-efficient, resilient operations that shorten fulfilment times, strengthen inventory management and deliver a consistently high-quality consumer experience as the brand expands nationally.
Ember Cookware co-founder & CEO Siddharth Gadodia said, “Supply chain is where growth either holds or breaks. As we scale across channels and geographies, we need operations that are efficient, resilient, and built for speed, without ever compromising on the consumer experience. Amit has done this before, at real scale.”
Ember Cookware co-founder & CMO Himanshi Tandon added, “As we scale, supply chain efficiency becomes as important as product and brand. Amit’s mandate is to build the operational foundations that make our promise consistent at scale.”
Amit Singh commented, “Ember is building something genuinely different, a category-defining brand with a clear purpose and the ambition to match. I’m looking forward to building supply chain infrastructure that doesn’t just keep pace with growth, but enables it.”
The appointment forms part of Ember’s broader push to deepen leadership across key functions as it invests in its Innovation Lab, proprietary material technologies and operational backbone to support national expansion.
In a kitchenware world where non-stick promises are easy but delivery is hard, Ember isn’t just cooking up products, it’s cooking up an operation that keeps every promise sizzling from factory to fork.
