Kelani Cables PLC is planning a Rs. 300 million (USD 5.7 million) expansion to be completed by next year in a bid to arrest its capacity constraints.

According to company, they have identified the land, which is adjacent to existing factory

at Kelaniya for expansion. 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.

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. The domestic cable market in Sri Lanka saw heightened competition with new entrants introducing lower cost products to the market.

The company’s export portfolio too continued to show growth. In addition to its existing export markets in the Maldives, Bangladesh, India and Japan during the 2011-12 financial year, they initiated negotiations to enter the lucrative Australian household wire market and were 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 for the company, by reducing transporting, loading and unloading time.