Business advertorial

Ceylon Glass produces bottles for local market and export

Ceylon Glass Company Limited (CGC), a BOI venture has introduced new technology and is able to manufacture a wide range of bottles made of coloured glass. Ceylon Glass Company Limited is Piramal Enterprise’s first venture outside India. Piramal Glass is a leading glass manufacturer based in India having manufacturing plants in USA, Sri Lanka and India.

The possibility of making glass bottles in a wide variety of colours such as blue, green, pink, olive green, dead leaf and other colours, has opened new opportunities to manufacture products for the export market. The company has succeeded in producing wine and liquor bottles made out of coloured glass.

Currently wine bottles made by Ceylon Glass have been exported to the growing Indian market, where there is now considerable demand on the part of consumers for wine. Some coloured bottles have also been exported to Australia, the Philippines, Maldives and Mauritius.

The initial products made by Ceylon Glass after the takeover by Piramal Glass Ltd [Erstwhile Gujarat Glass Ltd], the Indian Company, were soft drink and liquor bottles. But Ceylon Glass Company is a very versatile company that has catered to the needs of a wide range of sectors ranging from the alcohol industry to breweries, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food products and beverage.

The company has the ability to meet demands, both small and large. Typically a small order is for two days run but can also meet higher runs, depending on the needs of customers.

The new dynamism in the company came about in 1999, when Piramal Glass Ltd acquired Ceylon Glass Company. The company benefited from the technical know-how of Gujarat Glass, which is a global industry leader in the manufacture of bottles. It has Asia’s largest amber bottle manufacturing furnace that is in a single location, having a capacity of 240 tonnes a day. Piramal Glass operates 11 glass-manufacturing facilities across the world that includes two plants in the United States and one in Sri Lanka.

CGC signed an agreement with the BOI to invest over US $ 20 million in the relocation of a state of the art production facility at Horana in the first phase. The production facility was located at Horana in line with the BOI policy called the ‘300 Enterprise Programme’ that has sought to attract investment to areas outside Colombo and Gampaha, the two districts that have always got the lion’s share in terms of investment and the benefits of investment.

The old glass manufacturing plant was initially located at Ratmalana, where the company now operates the Office and the Warehouse, but the bulk of its activities and manufacturing is done in Horana.

This need to spread the benefits of investment across the country for the greater population of the island has been identified as a strategic objective of the BOI by Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion, Dr Sarath Amunugama, whose Ministry oversees the investment promotion agency.

While the relocation has been a socially progressive move, it has also resulted in a massive increase in the production capacity of the enterprise to over 200 metric tonnes per day. This amounts to a doubling of the company’s production. Production is now much more diverse and caters to an entire range of pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and perfumes, aerated drinks, liquor, wine, foods and agro container requirements.

There has also been an increase in the types of glasses produced by CGC that include Cobalt Blue, Dark Blue, Dead Leaf Green, Olive Green colour bottles to various global customers. The Company’s new plant located on 26 acres of land represents an investment of Rs 3.7 billion. The new facility will result in an increase of up to 250 tonnes of glass per day.

It will also result in increased flexibility for bottle manufacturing, with CGC being able to meet the demand for more innovative designs. The key feature of this new state of the art manufacturing plant is the ability to process five varieties of bottles simultaneously in a single production process.

CEO and Executive Director, Sanjay Tiwari stated his company currently operates four manufacturing lines, producing an estimated 200 tonnes a day, while the fifth line is expected to commence operations soon. “With the commencement of the fifth manufacturing line and installation of the Boosting System our production capacity at the Horana Plant will go up to 250 tonnes per day,” said Tiwari.

He added that the Company is already producing more than 150 varieties of bottles, catering to over 200 customers for a range of industries including the pharmaceutical, soft and hard liquor, carbonated drinks, food and beverages, cosmetics, perfume and agro chemical sectors. He further said that they would give priority to provide 100 per cent of the local glass requirement.

With the commissioning of the new plant the company’s current production capacity for manufacturing coloured bottles of different shapes would be more than doubled.

Tiwari added that this will enable CGC to export larger volumes of different coloured and shaped wine bottles to all major wine producing countries.

According to Sanjay Tiwari, the domestic requirement for glass is increasing at a rate of 8-10 per cent annually and the global demand in also increasing stably.

A significant factor was the growing worldwide demand for specialty glass containers that have presented opportunities for the Company to enter the niche market for coloured glass containers.

He stated “We are already the sole supplier of some special colour bottles for a major brand of the world’s second largest liquor producing company.”

The CEO of CGC said entering the UK glass market is a huge challenge faced by any company and added that his company had succeeded in securing orders from UK. Ceylon Glass Company, which achieved the “Superbrand” status, has added to its services a team of professional designers to create innovative designs to meet the design requirements of both large and small-scale buyers.

Tiwari added that they also operate a Sand Processing Plant at Nattandiya. Ceylon Glass Company Limited, as an environmentally conscious enterprise, has actively engaged in the recycling of glass. The company promotes glass recycling through a door-to-door collection process and said that they collect from the entire country.

Chevron concludes product knowledge training programme

Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC concluded their first product knowledge training programme for the final year students of the Institute of Engineering Technology in Katunayake. At a ceremony held recently at the IET training facility, Chevron made a presentation to all the recent graduates to acknowledge their successful completion of the product knowledge training programme.

“We are indeed proud to be part of this great day at the Institute of Engineering Technology” says Managing Director / CEO for Chevron in Sri Lanka Kishu Gomes. “Each student has performed exceptionally well in our product knowledge training programme that we introduced to the institute last year to enhance their knowledge of lubricants.” At this event, Chevron also recognised the five best performing students in the batch with special awards and mechanical tool kits provided by Chevron.

Chevron Sri Lanka introduced its lubricants training programme to IET Katunayake in June last year. This programme titled ‘Introduction to Lubricants and its Applications’ is a 13 module course incorporated into the syllabus for the final year students of IET providing them with indepth knowledge into lubricants and its market.

According to Chief Technology Manager for Chevron in Sri Lanka and Course Director for the Product Knowledge Training Programme at IET Katunayake, Dr. Gamini Amarasekera, “this programme is designed to educate students and provide them with the necessary tribology expertise in the automotive and industrial sectors.”

“The programme will take into account changes in the industry keeping students aligned with technological development.”

The organisation has also introduced a further module in this programme that would be beneficial to the students in the sphere of the lubricants industry. Also present on this occasion were Deputy Minister of Vocational & Technical Training, P. Radakrishnan, Chairman NAITA Amal Senalankadhikara together with a number of distinguished invitees from both Chevron and NAITA. Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Minister of Vocational and Technical Training commended this initiative by Chevron to enhance the technical knowledge of the IET students through this programme.

He stressed on the importance of such programmes in the development and growth of the community at large. He also applauded Chevron in their commitment to drive such programme at tertiary educational institutions.

BASF Finlay awarded ISO certification

BASF Finlay a joint venture between BASF, world’s leading chemical company and Finlay (Colombo) PLC, announced its certification as an ISO 9001 and 14001 company. The ISO 9001 Quality Management System and ISO 14001 Environmental Management System certification recognises the company’s commitment to global quality standards.

Managing Director, BASF Finlay in Sri Lanka Amal Perera said, “BASF Finlay is committed to excellence. We strive to provide the highest quality of products, processes and best-in-class teams to our customers in Sri Lanka. We have undergone many stringent global audits conducted by our parent company to ensure this.”

The ISO certification, 9001:2000 and 14001:2004 has bolstered BASF Finlay’s Quality Management System and the Environmental Management System for repacking/storage/sales and distribution of agrochemicals and storage, sales and distribution of industrial chemicals.

“Safety is one of the most important parameters for any of our operations across the globe. Continuous upgrades enable us to establish and maintain our high standards of safety,” said Perera.

BASF Finlay currently provides several first-rated innovative products to the plastics, fibre-glass, pharmaceuticals, food and vitamins, paints, leather tanning, textiles and agriculture industries. The company is the market leader in several segments of the industry. The quality principles of BASF Finlay are met by adopting professional planning techniques with an emphasis on the supply and demand for the industrial and agricultural sectors. BASF Finlay’s main facilities include a state-of-the-art chemical warehousing complex and an agrochemical-repackaging unit located in Sapugaskanda.

BASF’s focus on safety, health and environment represents the company’s commitment to the society as a responsible corporate citizen. BASF’s Environmental, Health and Safety standards have been recognised by the National Safety Award, with wins in various categories.