Pre-tax profits of Ceylon Glass Company Limited (CGCL) for the year ending March 2008 fell to Rs 49 million from Rs 184 million in the year ago period while sales turnover however rose to Rs 2 billion against Rs 1.8 billion earlier. The company, which also said it planned to sell its 21-acre land at

Ratmalana, south of Colombo, didn’t – in a press release – give any reason for the fall in profits but said growth was good. Its CEO Sanjay Tiwari said that it was a landmark year in the 50-year old history of the company with the successful completion of a major expansion and modernisation project of commissioning a new 250 tpd plant at Horana was achieved during the past year.

He said all all manufacturing facilities have been moved to Horana from Ratmalana. ““Due to capacity constraints in the early part of the year, this year too the company was compelled to import bottles at negligible or even negative margin rates in order to satisfy domestic customers and retain customer loyalty. Thus, the increase in the top line is not reflected in the improvement of the bottom line,” he said in the statement.

Mr Tiwari said the company has a unique position in the Asian market exporting boutique wine and specialty liquor bottles for leading brands in India. It is also in the process of doubling several such products for markets like the UK and Australia as well”.