KVPL’s turnover grows to Rs 1.2 billion

A nominal increase in rubber production and a 14 percent improvement in average net sales prices resulted in revenue from rubber growing 18 percent to Rs 481 million.

Kelani Valley Plantations PLC (KVPL), part of the Hayleys Group has reported a turnover of Rs 1.2 billion for the six months ending June 30, 2007, showing a marginal improvement over the corresponding half of 2006 despite a significant loss of tea crops particularly in the first quarter of the year.

A nominal increase in rubber production and a 14 percent improvement in average net sales prices resulted in revenue from rubber growing 18 percent to Rs 481 million.

This supported by a 32 percent increase in the average sale price for tea, enabled the company to post what its Managing Director Kavi Seneviratne in a press statement describes as a satisfactory performance in the circumstances.

In the first quarter KVPL witnessed a loss of about a third of the company’s tea production as a result of a 30-day go slow and strike by plantation workers in late 2006.

The adverse impact of this crop loss was compounded by a wage increase and a sharp rise in fertilizer costs in the period under review.

As a result of these factors, KVPL’s profit before tax of Rs 143 million was down by 26 percent over the first half of 2006, while post-tax profit declined by 29 percent to Rs 132 million.