Don Carolis invests Rs. 185m on new project

Ruwanthi Abeyakoon

EXPANSION: A total of Rs. 185 million will be invested to expand manufacturing furniture for the local and export market, Chairman, H. Don Carolis and Sons Limited, Rajiv Hewavitarne said.

The investment agreement was signed at the Board of Investment recently.

“Our target is to meet the demands of the export market. We hope to increase our exports to India.

At present there is one outlet in India. It will be improved and we hope to put up four more outlets within this year,” Hewavitarne said.

He said production capacity was a problem in manufacturing furniture. “Production capacity was a huge problem in increasing our products. We are starting a new factory in Kalutara to meet the demand of the customers.

We have a good market in India, United States, Norway and England. We were unable to manufacture that volume. The new factory will enhance the capacity,” he said.

“This expansion will generate employment for around 200. The demands of the local market will also be expanded through this investment,” he said.

Hewavitarne added that they are environment conscious and have launched a new project to minimise the pollution. “A new project was launched to convert saw dust into wood logs.

These briquettes are used for boilers used in tea factories as a source of energy. Usually the sawdust is dumped into rivers and it becomes an environmental hazard. We have installed the briquette plants at two factories in Moratuwa.

This project will also be developed in the future,” he added.