Highlights of the Concall

• Castrol India office based employees continue to work from home, except for those in operations and critical roles in its plants, who have safely resumed manufacturing to meet consumer demand complying with the local safety advisories

• The company is fully committed to customers and has fulfilled several of their demands even during difficult time due to a strong supply chain and distribution network. The agricultural season led to relatively good demand pickup towards end April and May despite the lockdown, though much lower than last year.

• Post partial relaxation in the lockdown the company has started seeing seeing the demand pickup for products related to two wheelers as well.

• Castrol's sales volumes fell 24.6% YoY to 38 million litres during the quarter mainly because of the pandemic and the resultant lockdown In March20. Even the first two months Jan- Feb20 the company saw softness in economy.

• All of the companies CNF and distributors are now operational.

• The company expects demand to be lower over the next few months as the economy would take time to revive. It aims to continue focusing on a better product mix, cost optimization initiatives, and the Personal Mobility segment as these would aid margins in the tepid manufacturing growth environment

• The company is confident of maintaining its margin going forward.

• The company indicated that volumes are expected to be materially lower during the seasonally strong Q2CY20 as well given limited passenger and freight movement amid prolonged lockdowns across the country.

• The company refrained from providing any guidance on volumes amid the prevalent uncertainty due to Covid-19.The company is focusing on undertaking cost control measures to support margins amid decline in volumes to mitigate negative operating leverage and streamline collections from the distribution channel to improve its working capital cycle.