Mumbai: IBP, India''s oldest petroleum company, is aiming at an annual turnover of Rs 10,000 crore during the current fiscal compared with Rs 8,753.09 crore in 2002-03.

IBP, part of the Fortune 500 Indian Oil, is expecting the rapid growth through marked rise in retail petroleum business. IBP will significantly expand the chain of retail outlets by opening another 600 retail outlets this year. The company has created 55 new retail outlets by July 2003.

IBP has drawn up extensive plans for growth by laying emphasis on consumer petroleum business and higher sales of lubricants and other products. The company has started actively participating in tenders floated by the state transport departments, defense, railways and armed forces for promoting the products and to achieve high volume sales. Also IBP is actively soliciting business from registered cooperatives for promoting consumer business of MS and HSD.

The company is exploring the scope for exports of IBP Red brand of lubricants to the neighboring countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Also to create a demand-pull in the domestic market, the brand will be promoted in an aggressive manner. For this the consignment agent chain for lubricants is being developed all over the country including the unrepresented areas. Also the IBP Red lubricants have in recent past obtained 16 OEM approvals to promote the business. The industrial grade is also being developed to meet demands from leading industry houses.

In LPG, the thrust area would be to enroll maximum customers from the existing chain of LPG distributors and also to reach out to the rural market through aggressive marketing. The company will add more than 75 distributors in the current year. The current subscriber base of IBP LPG is 2.8 lakh.

IBP is looking after the customers in a very exclusive manner and has already forged alliances with leading industry names such as CASL, HLL, Volvoline, Iftex, Amul, State Bank of India etc. The SBI Card, which IBP launched last year at 118 retail outlets in 19 cities, will soon be available in 41 cities.

The company is very actively pursuing the possibilities of having a tie-up or a joint venture for promotion of the explosives business at an optimum cost. The partner will help the company to increase its market share. The business group Cryogenics will use its experience and technology in promoting storage, distribution and marketing of gases — LNG/ LCNG.

IBP is in dialogue with an internationally renowned party who are the only experts in this area and have pioneered new initiatives in other countries, including the US.

In these areas IBP is working very closely with the holding company, IndianOil Corporation and the internationally acclaimed party and very soon a positive break-through is expected which will add to both the companies'' image and business substantially not only for now but on a sustained basis for a long term.