Castrol Motor Oil brand will be revitalised in Jamaica as it was relaunched on Wednesday evening at the Knutsford Court Hotel in St Andrew, by new local distributors Acavisa Jamaica Limited.

“We want to regain the trust of the Jamaican public, that Castrol is back to stay,” Alvaro Ortiz, regional manager Central American and the Caribbean — BP Oil, Castrol USA, told Auto.

He pointed out that Jamaica is their most important market in the Caribbean and that the brand had a successful history in the island to which they were committed to returning to.

“We have re-entered the market full force because we’ve noticed the current trend of Jamaicans buying automotive lubricants on price because they not aware of or looking at the long term or specifications,” Nicholas Beach, sales manager – Acavisa Jamaica Limited, said.

His words were echoed by José Guevara, technical regional manager – Castrol.

“Our aim for Castrol is to move into the premium lubricant space,” he said.

According to Guevara, the company’s research has indicated a lack of premium motor oils as well as several other deficiencies in the market, among which was the continued used of mono-grade oils, and has targeted their product line to address them for the end user.

“This is a myth and a multi-grade at the same viscosity would extend engine life by 400 per cent,” he explained.

The Castrol line-up starts with their mineral-based GTX, formulated to breakdown engine sludge and keep it from reforming extending engine life. It is followed by its part synthetic Magnatec. Since 75 per cent of engine wear happens within the first 20 minutes as it gets up to operating temperature, the Magnatec technology bonds to the metal surfaces to reduce start-up wear. At the top, is Castrol’s signature EDGE. Building on the products below it, EDGE is 100 per cent synthetic and uses their patented Titanium FST additive to reduce metal-to-metal friction by 45 per cent.

“Every lubricant we put on the market is designed to exceed minimum standards,” he said.

Acavisa Jamaica Limited also introduced the Castrol CRB line for diesel engines. Significantly, for motorbikes there is Castrol Actevo-4T.

“We have found that there are people using regular motor oil in their motorbikes which is a completely wrong thing to do. This is because unlike a car the bike shares its engine lubrication with the transmission,” Beach explained.

Beach sees the Actevo-4T breaking into the growing bike market.