Technology is king

For BPPL, technology is king. In a typical year approximately Rs.300 million is invested into the business. Amarasinghe shared that a good proportion of the profits are pumped backed as investments.

“Our distributors give their customers a 10 year warranty on our products. For them to be able to do that they need confidence in the manufacturing so from our side we need to ensure that everything is perfect. And this we do by continuously investing in technology,” he said.

BPPL boasts three state of the art factories. The wood factory in Ingiriya covers an area of over 9 acres. Its comprehensive production facilities consist of 69,000 square feet and 47,000 square feet of warehouse space. Amarasinghe said the modern manufacturing facilities allow the them to offer the broadest range of high quality wood blocks in plain, lacquered and painted finishes, and handles using rubber, beach and birch wood.

The wood factory’s technically advanced production is through computerized European machinery. BPPL takes pride in its ability to produce high quality products without compromising their quality or delivery. BPPL produces approximately 11 million units per annum with capacity utilization at 55 percent.

The filament factory spearheads the manufacture of Poly Propylene (PP), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), Poly-butylene Terephthalate (PBT) and Nylon monofilaments. BPPL’S state-of-the-art extrusion plant from Reifenhauser of Germany is recognized as best-in-class in PET mono-filament manufacturing capabilities.

The world class manufacturing facilities of the filament factory has a floor area of 19,000 square feet and an additional 7,500 square feet, equipped with other facilities including a generator room, raw material stores and a crushing area.

While talking about producing PP fibre in diameters of 0.15mm – 2mm and PET fibre in 0.18mm – 1mm, Amarasinghe said BPPL has the technology to create round, oval, ‘X’ or even triangle profiles in level or crimped textures with or without flagging. The production capacity is approximately 70 metric tonnes per month and currently is operating at 85 percent of full capacity.

The mop and brush factory is a modern manufacturing facility and BPPL continues a tradition of excellence by producing a diverse range of high quality brushware and mops.

Controlling all aspects of the manufacturing processes, the components are assembled and installed on plastic and wooden brush backs with synthetic filaments, or natural fibres. BPPL’S cotton and synthetic mops are renowned for their high standards of performance and reliability. Cotton yarn is sourced from India, synthetic yarn from Canada and sockets used are produced in their own plastic factory.

“Technologically advanced high speed computerized European machinery such as Borghi, Boucherie and Schlesinger produce the brushes at our facilities. We currently produce 10 million units per annum, operating at 46 percent of the capacity,” explained Amarasinghe.