The company has also chalked out expansion plans with special focus on south India.

"We will make a detailed announcement shortly for our expansion plans," said company chairman KN Venkatasubramanian at the annual general meeting. Gulf Oil also proposes to acquire a plant in the south to manufacture grease as it does not have any captive production. Mr Venkatasubramanian said that the present capacity at the company's Calcutta and Silvassa plants was not adequate. Gulf Oil, he said, would consider taking plants on lease where blending could be carried out as this would translate into huge cost savings. The company may also begin exports to Sri Lanka and Mr Venkatsubramanian made it clear that there were no plans of putting up a plant there. He said the company has set an export target of 2,000 kilolitres (kl) for the current fiscal and that it has already exported 430 kl.

The company has entered in to an arrangement with Bangladesh Oil on behalf of Gulf Oil International for export of lubricants to Bangladesh.

The chairman said that despite an "extremely difficult and competitive" business environment, the company increased turnover from Rs 260.02 crore to Rs 270.65 crore, a growth of 6.4 per cent in 1999-2000. Net profit increased by 9.51 per cent to Rs 12.66 crore from Rs 11.56 crore thanks to "aggressive and innovative marketing strategies".

The company has declared an interim dividend of Rs four per equity share which will also be considered as final dividend for 1999-2000.

Gulf Oil manufactured 52,225 kl of lubricants at Silvassa and Calcutta, up from 51,383 kl in the previous year. Mr Venkatasubramanian said that the company has launched genuine oils for Ashok Leyland, Ford Tractors, Mahindra and Mahindra Tractors and Jeeps. A number of other Genuine oil launches with reputed original equipment manufacturers have also been planned. This will enable the company to improve volumes and steady growth and better profitability, he added.

He also said that the company has launched new products in the two wheeler and passenger car segment and will shortly introduce a new range of specialty products.