Dankotuwa eyes Indian market

Ravi Ladduwahetty

Top tableware manufacturer Dankotuwa Porcelain PLC will make giant inroads into the Indian hotel and resorts market in a bid to circumvent losses arising from the traditional European and American markets.

The Indian five star hotels and resorts market have shown promising results with the company having already supplied to as much as 67 five star hotels, resorts and leading restaurants countrywide in India, Dankotuwa Porcelain PLC Chairman/Managing Director Sunil G. Wijesinha told Daily News Business yesterday.

He said that Dankotuwa Porcelain making major inroads into the Indian market will enable it to set off any possible losses arising from the reduction in orders from traditional markets in Europe and USA.

“The biggest industry show will be the Frankfurt Fair in February 2009 and we will know the position of the European markets by that time”, he said.

“The company has managed to survive in the Continental and American markets due to the exclusivity of the product range catering to the high end of the market and has withstood competition from the Chinese products which have flooded those markets”, he said.

Dankotuwa products also have the added advantage of having the whitest bodies in the products and buttressed with the superb surface design capability.

The demand for the Dankotuwa products were in such demand that the life cycle of each individual export order was a mere 18 months after which the fine dining products are switched to room service and later for staff use, he said.

Further factors which will support the Dankotuwa cause in the Indian market is the Commonwealth Games billed for 2010 which will also see the addition of 50,000 hotel rooms in New Delhi itself.

Other attractions in the Indian market that the company enjoys is that the lack of animal bone ash in the products which is appreciated by the Indians.

Meanwhile, Dankotuwa Country Manager in India Isack N. Solomons said: “ Among the five star Indian hotels that has Dankotuwa tableware directly were: the Taj Coromandal, Taj Fisherman is Cove and Le Meridien in Chennai, Taj Residencies, Travancore Heritage Resorts and Abad in Cochin, the Goa Marriott and the Goa Majoda Beach Resort, the Le Meridien, Centurion and the Joyce Palace in Bangalore.

Some of the local hotels based in India that Dankotuwa Porcelain exclusively supplies are the Aitken Spence managed hotels in Madurai and Puducherry.

Solomons, who was in Sri Lanka to discuss the new strategy for India and to select new designs to be introduced to the Indian market, said he has finalised the opening of three new franchise showrooms in the State of Kerala.