Raigam to invest Rs 300 mn to manufacture drapers

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

The Kingdom of Raigam would invest over Rs. one billion during the next 18 months for major expansions and diversifications. Chairman cum CEO, Raigam, Dr. Ravi Liyanage said that for the first time, they would manufacture baby diapers from next year. He said that the local baby draper market was valued at over Rs. 30 million per month. “We like to take up challenges and would invest nearly Rs. 300 million to manufacture drapers locally,” he said.

Workers at Sri Lanka’s first raw rice noodle plant Pictures by Saliya Rupasinghe

Dr. Ravi Liyanage

He said that they would import machinery from Taiwan and production would begin from next July.

“In addition, we will also invest another Rs. 500 million to expand our cosmetic range, increase production for brand building.” The main reasons was that Lanka’s annual cosmetic import bill being over Rs.10 billion and they see a potential to grab a major shares from this market.

Dr. Liyanage also disclosed plans to intensify Salt production. He said that when they entered the salt industry in 2008, 100% of the table salt was imported and today it had reduced to 20%. “We are also looking at a chemical plant in Trincomalee as well,” he added.

The Kingdom of Raigam also spelt out plans to enter the leisure sector with an eco tourism project in Trincomalee.

Dr Liyanage said that they had decided do discontinue the manufacture of biscuits, mainly to move away from the use of wheat flour. He also said that the due to lenient import taxes, the margins too were getting thin and this too was another reason for shunning away from the biscuit manufacturing sector.

He said that they hoped to raise funds from the profits generated from the company and also from borrowings. “We may also look at a IPO or a rights issue,” he disclosed.

He said that he was happy that they could set up trends in many fields, adding that Sri Lanka’s first raw rice noodle which he introduced, would also be marketed to the Gulf countries. “We have invested nearly Rs. 30 million for research for a period of three years to bring out this product which in turn would help people move away from consuming bread, thus helping the nation to avoid consuming wheat flower and lowering the wheat import bill which was over Rs. 54 billion per annum.” Since this noodle did not need to be boiled, it would also help to lower the energy bill.