Kelani Cables to increase exports by 15 %
Kelani Cables is looking at a record revenue in the excess
of Rs. 5 billion at the end of the financial year. This would be an increase of
more than 25 % from the last financial year. CEO Kelani Cables, Mahinda
Saranapala said that they would increase foreign exports by over 15 % and this
is the main reason for the increase of revenue.
The first shipment received
in Australia Pictures by Saliya Rupasinghe
He said that Kelani Cables became the first Sri Lanka
company to export wires to the Australian domestic market and now they plan to
explore the New Zealand market as well. “We received a Special Quality
Certificate from Australia which would also allow us to export to New Zealand,”
he said. Saranapala said that the first container was exported to Australia
last week to their Australian agent, Custom Electricals. He said that the
factory had to adapt to several ‘new styles’ to meet the Australian standed
which included a flat wire and special plastic coating. “The factory had to do
only a marginal investment for this.”
The Australian market was penetrated through a local
engineer domiciled in Australia. Kelani Cables products are already being
exported to Japan, South Africa, India, Maldives, and Bangladesh which is the
largest market for them. “The revenue from these markets was 15 % of the total
turn over of Rs. 4.34 billion last year.” “Our company profit before tax
meanwhile, increased by 80 % during the year, to Rs. 402 million. With this
strong growth, the group secured an impressive bottom line growth of 113 % of
Rs. 284.8 million during the financial year.
“We strengthened our presence in the North and East of the
country by increasing the number of our agents in these areas and by adding 500
new outlets in Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Kilinochchi, Jaffa and Pudukuduirippu.”
“We have built a new state-of-the-art warehouse in our
premises at Kelaniya. During the day we use skylight to reduce and save energy.
Invested in a new boom truck to improve cable drum handling and to handling
reduce costs.”
The first shipment received
He said that due to low quality exports by some manufactures
the high reputation Sri Lanka has earned is now in jeopardy. “These low quality
cables and wires are also a health and safety hazard for end users due to their
poor insulation capacity. We are deeply concerned to note that such low
quality, dangerous goods are gaining market share on the basis of significantly
lower prices, endangering life and property in the country.
Therefore, we urge the relevant authorities to enforce the
SLSI quality standards within the local cable and wire manufacturing industry,
as a matter of priority and public safety.”
He also said that last year over 89 people died due to burn
injuries in a Calcutta hospital and investigations had revealed that it was due
to a fire originated by low quality wire.
Source : Dailynews
No comments