Our history

The Trading & Producing Group ARGO was founded in 1997. Young chemists and engineers had united by the idea to create innovative Russian greases and founded the new Company. Carefully selecting a raw materials base and implementing new technologies to create unique greases, the company has been willing to the best result – to save and extend its clients’ equipment life with the help of application of lubricants.

In 1998, the necessity of constructing own production reached its maximum. The modern production is the whole process complex without which it is impossible to guarantee the declared product quality. Only own production capacity allows guaranteeing the continuous availability and fast manufacturing of greases to our clients.

The development of own industrial production of Neozon plant, forming a part of the Commercial and Industrial Group ARGO, allowed us extending the nomenclature of issued greases and increasing the packing assortment. Even then, our clients could purchase plastic greases from 100g tube to barrel. The plant has produced first batches of such greases as: lithol-24, shrus-4М, graphite grease, tsiatim-201, tsiatim-203, plastic grease Nr. 158, tsiatim-221, VNII NP-207 grease, VNII NP-232 paste, UNIOL–2MN grease, UNIOL 2M\2 grease, SOLIDOL-Zh. Convenient tare and different types of packing contributed to the development of the domestic grease market in Russia.

A launch of the ARGO premium products, which can really compete with important industry giants, is one of the most important events at the domestic plastic grease market. The Russian company ARGO challenged the world grease-producing society, having utilized the advanced technology of SM-ART (System Molecular Argo Technology). Such series of greases as: Termo, ELIT, BuroLit appeared in the market. These plastic greases of a new generation allowed many companies substituting GOST greases (e.g., lithol-24) to professional products, created for reliable equipment protection. The main difference of premium greases is the improved tribological characteristics, designed taking into account national and import equipment in Russian conditions.

The utilization of the new technology allowed producing premium plastic greases. We considered climatologic, geologic, process, economic features in order to help the industrial potential of Russia to become more independent with regard to import grease production. Premium ARGO greases effectively substitute import plastic greases, so they are completely equal products, which quality corresponds to such standards as DIN and NLGI. Such enterprises of the industrial segment as: Severstal, Karelian Okatysh, Norilsk Nikel, VSMPO-Avisma became the first consumers introducing the import substitution with ARGO. Plastic ARGO greases are supplied to these enterprises today too.

Due to a wide assortment of both the GOST products and premium grease group, more and more dealers joined our company. The variety of application and packing areas allowed dealers conducting their activities both in B2C and B2B segments. Proposing a high economical effect from the application of plastic ARGO greases, the company clearly stands out among other national manufacturers. Our quality corresponds to world standards, and prices are clearly lower than that of import greases.

Hi-tech greases, import substitution program and increasing popularity of the Russian manufacturer of ARGO lubricants allowed the company expanding the plant. In 2010, international experts denoted a trend shift towards hi-tech premium greases, which had been based on modern complex bases. Simple lithium and fat bases were reduced. What does it mean? First of all, the main equipment park (Russian industry) to 2010 consisted of import equipment, which requires and required more difficult greases for its maintenance. Initiated test programs at large mining and metallurgical enterprises allowed surely using plastic greases in different import equipment, e.g.: Sangvik, Komatsu, Lincoln.

As the trends in the sphere of lubricants application changed towards high-specialized products, the company needed to increase the research group for quick reacting to requests of industrial enterprises. The variety of raw material base as well as the accumulated experience of cooperation with industrial enterprises allowed quick implementation of exclusive materials, specially designed for the customer. As contrasted with other companies, the cycle from development to supply of new grease is 4 weeks. So, a series of unique SpecLub products, designed taking into account the operation features of domestic and import equipment, appears. This grease series is supplied directly to industrial enterprises of Russia. A quick implementation cycle of new products allows the clients developing their own private label; we guarantee the quality and privacy.

The implementation of the enterprise resource planning system was an important step in the ARGO company history. Being the technological leader in lubricant production, the ARGO is willing to correspond with modern company management standards. Due to the integrated enterprise and production management system, the company ensured transparent interaction business-processes with its suppliers and partners.

An additional sale office and warehouse allow our clients selecting the most convenient way of product shipment or payment.

The certificate and registration of test laboratory accreditation certificate in the System State Register is the official confirmation of technical competence in test conducting. To obtain this certificate, the company shall have: own material and technical base, documented procedures, management structure, qualified personnel, administration, legal and economical capacities, quality assurance system, set of regulatory, legal and organizational and methodical documents. All the ARGO products pass through the 5-stage quality control; a quality passport confirmed by a certified laboratory is issued for each batch. We store official samples during more than a year, it allows our clients inspecting in any moment the quality of produced batch and conducting repeated tests.

The ten-year experience of plastic grease import substitution, the plant expansion as well as the availability of a research department allow the ARGO company going to new markets and occupying firm positions there. One of such solutions was the appearance of a food-compatible grease line with Н1 access. In Russia as well as in the whole world, there are enough strict quality requirements to food products. That is why all the industrial enterprises of food industry are obliged to improve their processes and more carefully approach to the grease selection, ensuring the processes, e.g.: grease for conveyor rollers in the baking industry. Taking care of its own consumers, the ARGO obtained the international permission Н1, which allows a random food contact. The ARGO Food Line H1 grease composition contains only allowable ingredients, corresponding to the 21 CFR 178.3750 document.

Distributors present our production in each RF region. Our partners value value not only the stability of the product quality. Working with industrial customers, regional distributors have appreciated our ability to develop and manufacture greases with the formulation and characteristics that meet the needs of their customer and their equipment.

The price&volume policy of big corporations that produce lubricants, the sanctions policy of Western countries effects on profitability of sales. It forces companies to research a new assortment management approach. To meet the customers needs our Company has launched a new direction – private label production. Our partners get a high-quality, highly profitable product, transfering all processing to our side. We offer full cycle process from consulting, formulation choice, documents and layouts preparation - to produced on time product delivery to the client.

ARGO R&D is a team of highly qualified professionals who daily work to improve lubricants, they select formulations and ingredients that meet the task to extend the mechanisms life. Important part of technologists’ work is to create the new innovative products. This year the new grease ranges TermoPlex on an aluminum thickener, TermoLub S on a thickener calcium sulfonate, TermoLux on polyurea have been added to our sales.

Guided by the task of introducing innovative ARGO greases at major russian enterprises and at small industrial facilities, a team of ARGO sales representatives began to work in the regions. Technically savvy representatives of our company introduce the ARGO brand in their region and offer the main assortment products to the end industrial consumers. Regional team is also able to work out a complex problem related to grease perfomance with the technological team and put the product that will solve the problem and prolong the life of the mechanism for testing.

The manufacturing modernization has some points: increasing the number of production lines, updating production facilities, expanding the certified laboratory area and new laboratory equipment, technological processes innovations, automating production stages, and re-equipping the test site. Planned investments contributes to the creation of a new production infrastructure and ensures the growth of economic indicators, stability of product quality and its reproducibility. The new equipment for heat shrinking labels and for small packaging settles an extension of the product range and let offer new services for our current and new customers.

The foreign policy situation in 2022 has created trends towards import substitution, and, as a consequence, the need to increase production capacity and create a raw material stock. ARGO began investing in production modernization in 2021, but 2022 was a key year in terms of long-overdue changes that are still ongoing. A separate production line for lubricants based on a calcium sulfonate complex was launched at the lubricants production facility, which made it possible to increase the output of such lubricants by 4 times and reduce the cost of products. Due to serious sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation, ARGO management decided to localize the production of tubes in Russia. Today, the entire ARGO lubricant production cycle takes place on the territory of the Russian Federation. Direct contracts have been concluded with component suppliers from friendly countries, and the production purchases a considerable pool of ingredients from long-proven Russian suppliers. These actions made it possible to build a process for creating replenishable warehouse stocks. Today, the company's resources allow it to continuously provide customers with raw materials without additional deliveries for six months. Due to the increase in production and storage volumes, ARGO has significantly increased its warehouse space. 2023 is dedicated to the re-equipment of the ARGO quality laboratory. We have begun the process of replacing equipment and introduced new devices. For example, the arsenal of research devices now includes a low-temperature viscometer, a stand simulating the operation of a wheel bearing under high loads and temperatures up to +150 ° C, and others.

Over the past couple of years, ARGO lubricants have acquired a new look thanks to bright functional labels. This year, we went further by modernizing the packaging for the TOP-5 most popular ARGO lubricants in tubes. Now the labels are not afraid of frost, water, or dirt, which means that the products will always have a marketable appearance. Among other things, the design of barrels and buckets has been updated, now ARGO lubricants cannot be confused with anything! Baltic Trade Oil LLC has been training partners for many years, we share knowledge about the operation of lubricants within our wide product range. In 2024, a new ARGO START program was launched jointly with the independent testing laboratory LabTestBureau, which allows students of specialized educational institutions to join a team of professionals with the opportunity to undergo an internship and further employment. In this way, we contribute to the development of the lubricants industry and unite like-minded people. The expansion of the geography of production of products under the ARGO trademark entailed stricter quality control. We have improved the standards for the production of lubricants under the ARGO brand; now, in addition to a thorough analysis of raw materials at the input and testing at all stages of cooking before packaging, we check technical characteristics in an independent testing laboratory. The palletizing and labeling process is properly regulated. All of this allows us to guarantee the stable quality of ARGO lubricants!