Packaging, a turnaround success in the making

Sunshine Holdings has achieved a remarkable turnaround in its metal packaging business in the last 18 months since its acquisition through DFCC.

Sunshine Packaging Limited (SPL), formerly Metal Packaging Limited was a pioneer in the Rs 650 million metal packaging industry. Equipped with customised packaging machinery, SPL offers a wide variety of packaging solutions, supplying the total FMCG industry’s requirements in metal-based packaging.

A significant part of its growth has been the supply of tea caddies for export orders for the local tea industry for clients such as Ahmad Tea, Tetley UK and Rabea, Saudi Arabia.

Sunshine Packaging is a subsidiary of Sunshine Holdings Limited, which is a diversified conglomerate with 15,000 employees and strategic business holdings in branded tea, packaging, plantations, health care and tourism.

The group is listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) with revenue of Rs 5.9 Billion for the financial year ending March 2007.

The local metal packaging industry caters to approximately 50 per cent of the total demand while the rest is imported as finished or semi-finished cans from China.

This is an untapped opportunity for the Sri Lankan industry and SPL is looking to grasp this opportunity with a series of innovations designed to increase capacity and efficiency at its manufacturing units.