Top UAE luxury brand retailer ties up with Indian petroleum giant

Business Bureau, Gulf Today

UAE based Al Nabooda Automobiles has been appointed as its UAE distributor by Indian petroleum giant, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) through its 100 per cent subsidiary in the UAE, HPCL Middle East.

Part of the diversified conglomerate Khalifa Juma Al Nabooda Group, Al Nabooda Automobiles has more than 4 decades of experience in the automotive sector and is the exclusive dealer for the Audi, Porsche and VW brands in Dubai and the Northern Emirates of UAE.

 Incorporated in 2018, HPCL Middle East FZCO is the UAE arm of the Indian Petroleum giant which is a market leader in the highly competitive Indian lubricant market. HPCL is a Global Fortune 500 Company grossing more than $35 billion in sales revenues and apart from its major fuel refineries, owns and operates the largest Lube Refinery in India. In the humungous Indian Lubricants market, HPCL has consolidated its position as the largest lubricant marketer and with a robust R&D support and state of the art blending plants, manufactures and markets more than 450 grades of lubricants, specialties and greases finding applications in all sectors including automotive, transport, industrial, mining, construction, agriculture, defense and marine.

The agreement was signed by Khalifa Juma Al Nabooda, Chairman, Khalifa Juma Al Nabooda Group of Companies and Subhendu Mohanty, CEO, HPCL Middle East in the presence of Khalid Al Nabooda, Managing Director, Khalifa Juma Al Nabooda Group of Companies, K. Rajaram, CEO, Al Nabooda Automobiles, Kanuru Srinivas, Chief General Manager-I&C, HPCL and Mr. Thomas Faerber, General Manager, Al Nabooda Automobiles.   

Speaking about the partnership, K. Rajaram, CEO, Al Nabooda Automobiles said, “We are proud to tie up with a giant like HPCL. Our growth strategy over the past few years has hinged on network expansion where we have developed facilities across the UAE in order to be able to cater to the needs of our customers. This included building the world’s largest Audi and Porsche showrooms in Dubai, expanding our reach into the Emirates of Sharjah and Fujairah and building a state of the art bodyshop and paint facility in DIP.

By partnering with HPCL, we are diversifying into a new but related business sector. As a major player in the premium automobile retail sector, Al Nabooda Automobiles enjoys high brand equity in UAE market. The lubricants sector is highly competitive with established players and there are four key strengths that we will capitalize on to make this venture into a success, namely our strong existing relationships, the world class infrastructure that we have built across UAE, our orientation towards customer satisfaction and most importantly our talented manpower resources”.

Hailing the partnership  Subhendu Mohanty, CEO, HPCL Middle East FZCO, said “This is a perfect amalgamation of strengths, given the expertise of Al Nabooda Automobiles in building hugely successful world class brands in UAE and the market leading and customer centric products and services offered by a seasoned marketer as HPCL.”

Wishing the partnership all success, Executive Director - Lubes, HPCL India, & Chairman, HPCL Middle East FZCO, Mr. R. Sudheendranath expressed “It is indeed a privilege to partner with the admired and renowned Al Nabooda Group of companies and to work together with them to bring the high-quality offerings of HP Lubricants and related petroleum products from HPCL to service the requirements of a vibrant UAE market”.

Al Nabooda Automobiles will tap into its decades of experience in the UAE to market and sell the HPCL range of lubricants and oils in the Automotive and Marine sectors in the short term and gradually scale up operations to include other segments of HPCL lubricants in the medium to long term.

Meanwhile, India’s near-term trade outlook is fragile as its retaliatory tariffs on US products come amid a global slowdown, a report said.

Trade deficit remained elevated in May and widened to $15.36 billion from $15.33 billion in April and a comparable $14.62 billion the same month last year.

“The near term outlook for trade looks fragile with President Donald Trump terminating a beneficial trade treatment accorded to India for a developing nation. Also, the recent imposition of retaliatory tariffs by Indian economy to US decision comes at a time when global economic growth rate is projected to slow down.. ,” the Centrum report said.

Both the actions add further woes to India’s trade position, that is already struggling against the prevalent headwinds from slowing global demand,” it added. However, Crisil said it believes the withdrawal of benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) from June 5, as announced by the US earlier, will have limited impact on India’s overall export trade.