Arpico to shove losing entities
Hiran H. SENEWIRATNE
World’s largest
Maritime Campus Dalian Maritime University signed an MoU
with Colombo International CINEC Maritime Campus in
Millennium Drive IT Park in Malabe on Tuesday. Prof Wqng
Zuwen examining the bridge stimulation. President CINEC
Maritime Campus, Captain Asitha Wijesekera and Dean of
the Faculty Captain Nalaka Jayakody look on. Picture by
Saliya Rupasinghe
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Richard Pieris and Company Limited (RPCL) is looking to move out from
certain business entities, that are not performing well, due to the
tough market conditions prevailing in the country, Director/ Chief
Operating Officer Pravir D Samarasinghe said.
“We are looking at some areas that are not performing well and also
entities that are continuously making losses for the company,”
Samarasinghe told the Daily News Business.
The company’s, main driving areas are retail and plantation sectors
while the rubber sector exports from is facing a lot of challenges due
to the high cost of raw materials. The total turnover form rubber
exports is more than Rs 3 billion,” Samarasinghe said.
Recently, the company has also moved out from the media business and
the real estate business, due to the shrinking of profits and
profitability and due to other reasons. This was due to the escalation
of cost of expenditure prompted them to focus on core business areas,
which are yielding profits to the company, he said.
The rubber export business going through major challenge, which has
almost affected the profitability of the company’s total group turnover.
Under these circumstances, RPCL is focusing on higher export markets
with more increse in North the American, European and certain other
Australian regions, he said.
The company is also focusing on lucrative markets and therefore they
are now more choosy in selecting markets, which are customer based to
increase the profitability of the company.
Further, Richard Pieris company investing in the Research and
Development (R and D) while improving internal processes to reduce
unnecessary cost to enhance the profitability of the company, he said.
Speaking on their core business areas he said that, retail and
plantation sectors are growing very well and the company is intending to
invest more on those areas in the future. But escalating energy cost and
other charges impacted the long- term profitability of the company,
Samarasinghe said.
Richard Pieris and Company is one of the largest and most successful
diversified business conglomerates based in Sri Lanka. Being one of the
oldest companies with a 75 year old history, it is also one of the
largest employment provider in the private sector in the country.
The group enjoys of its local market leadership in its traditional
sectors of Rubber, Tyres, plastics and retail and distribution. In
addition the Group has in recent times ventures into Plantations,
Financial services and logistics.
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