EXPOLANKA WILL CONTINUE TO EXPAND IN ASIAN REGION: CEO
Following is an interview with Expolanka Holdings PLC Director/ceo Hanif Yusoof, which is a part of an interview series of S&P SL20 companies conducted by Colombo Stock Exchange in partnership with Mirror Business. Excerpts:
What are the key milestones that Expolanka Holdings PLC has achieved so far in 2019?
As a starting point, from an organizational perspective, we continue to focus on our core Logistics and Leisure sectors and move away from non-core businesses and investments. We have exited from two additional non-core investments this year and continue to look for opportunities to restructure that portfolio as well.
Reflecting to the beginning of this year, our primary focus was to consolidate our performance from the previous year. We have been quite successful in achieving this during the current year in terms of meeting our consolidating objectives.
Furthermore, we have continued to work on our expansion initiative during the current year, and we look forward to expanding our portfolio and presence. While we focus on strengthening our presence in the Far East and are in the final stages of establishing our operations in Taiwan and Thailand, we continue to identify opportunities in potential markets. Our organization simply operates as a ‘Global Sri Lankan’ where most of the revenue and profit is generated from our international operations.
Along with the restructure that has taken place in the company and with the backing and support of our parent company, the profile of our organization has changed.
One of our key objectives was to strengthen our balance sheet and re-allocate capital to the core-focus business sectors. By doing so, we are now able to leverage our balance sheet to meet our growth objectives.
On the digitization front, we continue to leverage our ERP project by bringing in more efficiency to business operations and implementing technologies necessary to add value to our customers and business partners. This is an aspect which is extremely important to the group as it will be a key factor impacting the future of our business.
From a sustainability perspective, we have re-aligned our initiatives to be in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals which is aimed at addressing key sustainability factors impacting the countries and industries we operate in.
With a business strategy that is re-aligned to follow the UN SDGS, we continue to focus on improving our brand. While we continue to reach global rankings as one of the leading Freight Forwarders, we continue to carry out initiatives to nurture and increase our brand value.
Could you outline the three most important macro trends that you believe will impact the industry you operate in?
As a global player, we are impacted by changes taking place in the world. As I mentioned previously, the trade war between USA and China has created an impact pertaining to Global Trade and Consumer Confidence.
We continue to observe this very carefully and take preemptive steps to overcome the challenges at hand. Given our network strength, diversity and breadth and depth of trade lanes, we are now positioned to overcome some of these challenges to transform them into feasible opportunities for our end-customers.
With a drastic change in business models alongside an ever-growing pool of customer needs considered as factors impacting our industry, Digitization too will play a vital role in our business operations. Given the renewed focus on our digitization strategy, we continue to invest in progressive technologies that would augment and complement our day-to-day operations.
Asia emerging as a Tiger – Asia which was previously considered a manufacturing market is now becoming a key consumer market. As an organization that began operations in Asia, we believe that this progressive change would affect global trading patterns drastically. While we continue to increase our presence in this region, we are confident that it will certainly open doors to explore new opportunities going forward.
Could you elaborate a few growth prospects for the company going forward and how you intend to capitalize on these growth opportunities?
We will look at expanding our customer base and markets alongside servicing our customers across the region. Furthermore, we will concentrate on increasing the wallet share of existing customers by aiming to service them across our network.
We will also look at enhancing our service portfolio by attempting to introduce a wider range of services to our customers across the value chain.
Our growth in the past has primarily been fueled by organic growth strategies, however, we are looking at in-organic growth strategies when needed, to complement and expand our business.
As I have alluded above, we are also looking at establishing operations in the Far East and new growth markets, which is continuously being reviewed.
In your opinion, what challenges do you anticipate in the industry that you operate in?
I think I have alluded to some of the major challenges facing the industry, however, on a more generalist basis, I think there are two other key challenges that businesses face today;
With change considered as a constant in the dynamic business world of today, organizations operating like ours, will have to ensure that agility and flexibility are a part of their DNA to combat these challenges.
Pressure on margins continue to impact our core businesses (Logistics & Leisure). This does not merely affect us, instead, it affects most businesses.
Focusing on the shareholder, what efforts and initiatives are you taking to drive shareholder value?
Our shareholders have continuously expressed their interest in focusing on continuous and consistent growth and our strategy is very much aligned with their expectations.
Whilst we grow as an organization, we continue to explore possibilities of increasing efficiencies, streamlining processes and introducing progressive technologies to supplement and complement our business. We believe that this will enable Expolanka to generate strong growth with high returns to all our shareholders.
Finally, what is your message to Expolanka shareholders?
With clear and consistent strategies in place, Expolanka has continued to grow aggressively over the past few years.
The Industry we operate in is going through an exciting phase with a range of developments taking place. We are committed to delivering strong performance to our shareholders and continue to work towards generating strong returns.
Our growth in the past has primarily been fueled by organic growth strategies
We will concentrate on increasing the wallet share of existing customers by aiming to service them across our network
Asia which was previously considered a manufacturing market is now becoming a key consumer market