Castrol Limited is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotivelubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The company was originally named CC Wakefield; the name Castrol was originally just the brand name for CC Wakefield's motor oils, but the company eventually changed its name to Castrol when the product name became better-known than the original company name.[1]
Since 2000, Castrol Limited has been a subsidiary of BP, which acquired the company for $4.73 billion.[2]
History
Charles Wakefield, founder
The "Wakefield Oil Company" was founded by Charles Wakefield in Cheapside, London in 1899. Wakefield had previously
left a job at Vacuum Oil to start a new business selling lubricants for trains and heavy machinery.
Eight Vacuum Oil employees joined Wakefield, and the company launched its first lubricant in 1906.
In early 20th century, Wakefield Co. developed lubricants especially suited for automobiles and aeroplanes.[3] The brand "Castrol" originated after researchers added measured amounts of castor oil (a vegetable oil derived from castor beans) to their lubricant formulations.[1]
By 1960, the name of the motor oil had eclipsed the company's name itself so "CC Wakefield & Company" became "Castrol Limited".[4] In 1966, Castrol was acquired by company Burmah Oil, which was renamed "Burmah-Castrol". Burmah-Castrol was purchased by London-based multinational BP (then, "BP Amoco plc") in 2000.[5]
At the time of purchase, Burmah-Castrol had a turnover of nearly £3 billion with operating profits of £284 million. The company also had 18,000 employees worldwide, with operations in 55 countries. Respectively, BP Amoco had 80,400 employees worldwide and revenues of more than £63 billion.[6]
Previous Castrol logo, used from 2001 until 2023. The logo shown here is the 2006 revised version.
While Burmah's operations folded into the group, Castrol has remained as a subsidiary of BP.
Products
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Lubricants
Castrol is a leading manufacturer of lubricants and offers a broad range of products for various applications. The exact names of the product groups and types are :
Passenger car engine oils:
Edge
Magnatec
GTX
Commercial vehicle engine oils:
Vecton
RX
CRB
Automatic transmission fluids, differential and axle fluids, manual transmission fluids:
Wakefield mechanical lubricators on preserved LNER Class B1 no. 1306 Mayflower. The bright metal bar at the bottom is the reciprocating connection to the expansion link.
Some steam locomotives were fitted with one or more Wakefield mechanical lubricators. These were normally mounted on the locomotive footplate alongside the boiler, in a position where a mechanical linkage could be made with some point on the locomotive's valve gear or another moving part. The reciprocation of this caused a lever on the lubricator to oscillate, and this was converted to a small rotary movement by a ratchet. The gradual rotation caused a small amount of lubricating oil to be fed into pipes leading to the cylinders, valves and other parts. The amount of oil fed was in proportion to the distance travelled by the locomotive in either direction.[8]
In North America, Castrol has been an active sponsor of NHRA drag racing. Castrol sponsored John Force Racing under the GTX brand from 1987 until the end of the 2014 season. Also, the All American Racers had Castrol sponsorship in the CART World Series from 1996 to 1999. In 2014, Castrol sponsored former Indy 500-winning IndyCar team Bryan Herta Autosport, with English rookie Jack Hawksworth behind the wheel.
Castrol was the main sponsor of the Castrol International Rally in Canberra for 11 years between 1976 and 1986. The same was true for an International Rally held in South Africa, ending annually in neighbouring Swaziland.
It was the most prestigious event on the South African rally calendar at the time, until Castrol ended its sponsorship of this event. Later only some competitors' cars were carrying the bright green and red colours of Castrol sponsorship in national rally events, notably the S.A. Toyota dealer team.
In 2019, Castrol extended their sponsorship activities by re-forming a partnership with Jaguar, this time supporting them in Formula E[17] and also NASCAR Cup Series giants Roush Fenway Racing-Ford since 2020 season due to Ford's commercial relationship with BP plc.
Castrol advertising has been a part of telecasts of the National Football League for years. In 2011, Castrol's Edge brand became the official motor oil sponsor for the league, renewed until the 2017 season.[21]
Cricket
The Castrol Cricket Index is a dynamic indicator of the overall performance of a cricket team. It is calculated by taking into consideration the batting momentum, the bowling efficiency, the performance of the teams in the quick start overs and the extreme performance overs and many other factors. Castrol Cricket also ranks cricketers based on their overall performance.[22] India centric initiatives being undertaken like Castrol World Cup ka Hero was created during the 2011 Cricket World Cup.[23][24]
Castrol booth at an exhibition in Long Biên, Hanoi, 2016
Castrol products are still marketed under the red, white and green colour scheme that dates from the launch of Castrol motor oil in 1909. Advertisements for Castrol oil historically featured the slogan "Castrol – liquid engineering". This was more recently refreshed and reintroduced as "It's more than just oil. It's liquid engineering."[27][28]
For many years, the opening notes of the second Nachtmusik movement of Mahler's Seventh Symphony were used as the signature theme of Castrol TV commercials.[29]
Wakefield vehicles advertised the company and Castrol on their sides; models of them were made by Dinky Toys, and in later times became sought-after collectors' items.[30] One example from 1934 to 1935, in very good to excellent condition, was estimated to fetch £1,000-£1,500 at auction in 2016.[31]
References
^ abc"History of Castrol". BP. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 15 June 2014. Early in the new century, Wakefield took a personal interest in two sporty new motorised contraptions – the automobile and the aeroplane. The company started developing lubricants especially for these new engines, which needed oils that were runny enough to work from cold at start-up and thick enough to keep working at very high temperatures. [...] Wakefield researchers found that adding a measure of castor oil, a vegetable oil made from castor beans, did the trick nicely. They called the new product 'Castrol.'
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