We are in the process of NABL accreditation for our lube oil testing
We are proud to announce that our company has been awarded the title of Model Company, the first company in India to be conferred such a title in the small scale category. Practicing 5S has helped us to give the customer timely service and increased his confidence in our company, says S Alex Wilfred, Managing Director, Pentagon Lubricants. Excerpts from the interview.

What are the core strengths and competencies of Pentagon Lubricants?
The core strength of Pentagon is the strong R&D team that works round-the-clock to serve customer needs. Pentagon can custom-make the products according to the customer's need. Our main objective is to give the customer affordable technologies; in other words, we provide customers with the latest technology at an affordable price.

Could you brief us on the 5S and how a customer is benefitted from this?
5S is the Japanese workplace organising system standards as specified by AA 5S FI, it spells out the effective use of the workplace, time, each person's responsibilities, etc; it acts as a tool for company value addition. We are proud to announce that our company has been awarded the title of Model Company, the first company in India to be conferred such a title in the small scale category. Practicing 5S has helped us to give the customer timely service and increased his confidence in our company.

What was Pentagon's performance like in 2012?
In the last fiscal year of 2012, the performance of Pentagon has been quite satisfactory when compared with 2010-2011; we have seen a growth of 20 per cent in 2011-2012. In the present year, we are expecting a minimum of ten per cent increase. This dip in growth is solely based on the automobile sector. Our markets are solely based on automobiles and automobile component manufactures.

Brief us on the solutions and services offered by Pentagon Lubricants for the industrial sectors.
Pentagon operates a unique service called Customer Education Programme & Training (CEPT). In this programme, we educate the customer about the oil, its properties, its effective usage, and conservation of oil, oil maintenance, etc. Our main objective is to bring awareness among users to save oil and thus save our environment.

What are the major challenges Pentagon Lubricants faces?
The major challenge in the present market is the price, the more competitive in price you are, the more able you are to hold your ground in the market. In my point of view, the OEMs, Tier-2 companies, should come forward to give an opportunity for small scale industries like us to grow, they should realise that a SSI industry can provide better service and quality at par with the lube manufacturing MNCs. In fact, the SSI can provide better after sales service to the users like automobile buyers in terms of cost savings. This low maintenance/service cost of any automobile will automatically boost the sales of vehicle manufacturers.

What is your R&D spend and could you brief us a bit on your R&D efforts?
Pentagon has a separate R&D team which will work in line with the expectations market, what the markets actually needs in terms of new technology, cost-effective products, synthetic technology, etc. We have a 1,200-sq ft R&D laboratory, where Pentagon has state-of-the-art test-oriented equipment, apart from the basic test equipment. We are in the process of NABL accreditation for all our lube oil testing and it will be open for others, also. We at Pentagon believe only in quality assurance and not just in quality control.