Kelani Cables plans Rs 300 mln expansion
Kelani Cables PLC is planning a Rs. 300 million expansion to be completed by next year in a bid to arrest its capacity constraints, according to officials.
"We have identified a 277 perch land which is adjacent to our factory at Kelaniya for expansion," Mahinda Saranapala, CEO Kelani Cables told the Business Times. He added that the company has already identified the required machinery to be set up at their new facility, once the expansion is done. With this expansion, Kelani Cables will install the right 'mix' of machines in order to arrest the current capacity constraints, Mr. Saranapala added.
The company posted a 123 per cent increase in its net profit last year to Rs 295 million from Rs 132 million the year before. “During the year we faced volatility in copper prices in international markets and operational challenges in the domestic market that had an overall adverse impact of our bottom line, such as the escalation of fuel prices, foreign exchange fluctuations, increase in electricity prices and also increased competition. However, there was a strong top and bottomline growth during the financial year 2011/12, despite these challenges," Mr. Saranapala added. He said that the domestic cable market also saw heightened competition with new entrants introducing lower cost products to the market.
He said the company’s export portfolio too, continued to show growth. “In addition to our existing export markets in the Maldives, Bangladesh, India and Japan during the 2011/12 financial year, we initiated negotiations to enter the lucrative Australian household wire market,” he said, adding that Kelani Cables was also able to send a few trial orders to South Africa during the year.
In its drive to improve operational efficiencies the company closed down several stores in different parts of the company and shifted to a central warehouse, by building a new state-of-the-art warehouse in its premises at Kelaniya. The central warehousing concept has proved to be more operationally efficient and also more cost effective, by reducing transporting, loading and unloading time, Mr. Perera added.