Glass company opens Rs. 3.7 b new facility

Anjana Samarasinghe

The Ceylon Glass Company PLC (CGC) opened its new glass bottle manufacturing facility in Horana yesterday.

The total investment of the new facility is Rs. 3.7 billion. The company will increase its production capacity to cater to the local and international market.

Speaking at the opening ceremony CEO of CGC, Sanjay Tiwari said they will have five manufacturing lines for the new plant. One manufacturing line has already commenced operations and the other four lines too will commence production within a few weeks. This will enable the company to produce nearly 200 metric tonnes per day and the fifth manufacturing line will increase their production capacity to 250 metric tonnes per day.

The new plant will be equipped with the facility to manufacture colour bottles. With the commissioning of the new plant, the company's current production capacity for manufacturing colour bottles of different shapes would be more than doubled.

"The old plant in Ratmalana has been mothballed. With the commissioning of our new plant there will be employment generated to over 500 persons both directly as well as indirectly.

"We have signed a collective bargaining agreement with the Inter Company Union for the next three years, including the amicable relocation of people and I am pleased to say we enjoy a most cordial relationship with the Union" Tiwari said.

Chairman of the Piramal Enterprises, India Ajay Piramal said they acquired CGC because they are familiar with this sector and need to grow outside India.

This acquisition was very profitable for our company and it helped us with some acquisitions in other countries too.

"Only developed countries focused on specialised glass manufacturing but developing countries too have potential in this sector, he said.

Chairman of the CGC, Vijay Shah said there was excellent support from the trade unions for relocating the new facility in Horana.

"The world market for food and beverage glass is over US$ 12 billion and is growing at 12%, the Cosmetic and Perfume glass is US$ 1.9 billion US$ and growing at 5%, while the pharmaceutical glass market is around US$ 2 billion.

"Key markets for specialty food and drinks are the US and Europe which are forecast to be US$125 billion by 2009 with the Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) being 5%.

"We are already the sole supplier of blue bottles for a major brand of the world's second largest liquor company and we are currently exploring export opportunities in India, the Philippines, Mauritius, and Australia".

Shah said the domestic demand for glass containers too had grown, all of which were contributing factors that had made CGCL invest in the new production facility.