Kelani Cables set to aggressively expand
Kelani Cables PLC has set its sight on aggressively expanding the product portfolio while also investing in both related and unrelated sectors in business.
This includes forming joint ventures, finding new export markets and even buying into firms related to cable manufacturing, Mahinda Saranapala, Director/CEO Kelani. Cables PLC told the Business Times in an interview on Wednesday.
For starters the company, which has added to its bottom-line over the years through time-tested management practices of Kaizen, an approach to creating continuous improvement based on the idea that small, ongoing positive changes can reap major improvements, is looking at forming a joint venture on technical know-how with a foreign firm to manufacture transformers in Sri Lanka for exports. “We are the number one enamel winding wire (EW) manufacturer in Sri Lanka. With a joint venture with a foreign firm, we want to manufacture transformers for exports,” Mr. Saranapala explained. The company also has plans to manufacture water pumps. “The annual water pump requirement in Sri Lanka is 25,000 pumps. We can see an opportunity in this sector,” Mr. Saranapala said noting that the idea is to move away from traditional businesses and implement out of the box thinking.
Kelani Cables’ exports’ volumes have also considerably arisen over the past few years. Now the company exports to nine countries with Myanmar and Pakistan being added recently. Mr. Saranapala noted that Myanmar has an annual GDP growth forecast of 8.5 per cent and a population of over 65 million. “There is a huge potential in this market and we have just started in Pakistan which also looks promising,” he said.
The annual world cable market is growing at nine per cent. As such, Mr. Saranapala sees unprecedented potential in exports.
Kelani Cables is also set to acquire three units of machines for aerial cable bundling. “This is an expansion area we are looking at,” Mr. Saranapala added.
In support of the core business of cables, the company started trading related items. As a result, in addition to the turnover from cables, the trading items related to electrical industry added considerably to its bottom line. “We gradually built this sector up. Now it is adding real value to the bottom-line. For an example Kelani Cables is the number one in terms of volume generation in insulating tape,” Mr. Saranapala added.
In addition to this, Mr. Saranapala said the company, which celebrated half a century last year, is also interested in industry-related start-ups.
“We would like to work with innovative start-ups to further our company goals,” he said.
Kelani Cables was awarded the World Class Award (highest) in the large manufacturing category at the Global Performance Excellence Awards (GPEA) 2017 at Okada Manila, Philippines.
Asia Pacific Quality Organisation organises the Global Performance Excellence Awards every year to recognise the best performing business organisations in the Asia and Pacific Rim region. Kelani Cables was the only electric cable manufacturer to win at GPEA 2017, Mr. Saranapala said. Kelani Cables won the Sri Lanka national quality award in 2016.
Kelani Cables has been consistently growing in profits and this is due to consistent pricing, availability of products islandwide and constantly discussing with industry stakeholders on new upcoming projects and their requirements, Mr. Saranapala explained. He is very appreciative of his staff, saying: “We have 521 associates.”