Kelani Cables invests Rs 300 mn to strengthen exports

H. D. H. Senewiratne

Kelani Cables Plc., is now in the process of investing Rs 300 million on land, machinery and buildings to strengthen its export markets, following the successful penetration into the Australian market.

“The company's biggest achievement was the penetration into the lucrative Australian market, where we manufacture household domestic cables to Australian standards, apart from other markets including India, Bangladesh, South Africa and many more countries,” its Chief Executive Officer Mahinda Saranapala told Daily News Business.

He said that they were looking at a growth strategy for the expansion of their operations by investing Rs 300 million for the land machinery and building, in keeping with the company’s vision to deliver optimum value to stakeholders through product development, advanced technology, improved productivity and efficiency, while creating an open culture within the organization to harness innovation and creativity to be competitive.

He said that presently, they enjoy 35 percent of local market shares and was also planning to increase up to 35 percent under the new growth strategy of the company.

Therefore, this new investment would help enhance their business in many fold in the coming years, Saranapala said.

Kelani Cable PLC has their footprints in Japan, India, the African Continent, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The revenue gathered through exports exceeds 15% of the total revenue of the company, he said .

The company being a 100 percent locally owned company was serving the nation for the past 43 years, manufacturing more than100 verities of cable to all sectors, including telecommunication, power and energy and many more.

Kelani Cables extended their Continuous Professional Development (CPD) one year programme, designed to help local electricians to improve their knowledge on the latest industry developments. This course was fully designed and conducted by the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department of the Peradeniya University, with the financial assistance of Kelani Cables PLC.

Kelani Cables was the proud recipient of ISO 9000:2008 for quality, ISO 14001:2004 for better environment management and gold winner of Taiki Akimoto 5S award. Kelani Cables received the ‘Super Brands’ accreditation for electrical and telecommunication sector in 2008, he said.