Much progress at Agalawatte Plantations under Damro management
View(s):Damro purchased the controlling stake of both Pussellawa Plantations Ltd and Agalawatte Plantations PLC in March 2017, and both have shown progress in recent times.
In a media statement, Damro said Pussellawa Plantations was a company that had been well managed by an efficient team of executives and staff and the company had no bank borrowings either and thus it was not required for Damro to provide any financial support to this company.
“In contrast, Agalawatte Plantations was on the brink of bankruptcy, owing to which Damro had to infuse capital to the tune of over Rs. 4,000 million to settle statutory dues of employees, such as EPF, ETF, Gratuity and the government lease rental, which had remained outstanding for a period of around 3-4 years,” it said. However Agalawatte Plantations failed to show substantial improvements despite Damro spending large sums in developing factories, improving cultivation practices and large scale replanting and therefore, as a last resort had to engage capable Executives and Staff of Pussellawa Plantations and Damro to manage some of the properties.
“It is heartening to state that as at present, most of these estates are in a much improved position, agricultural wise and financially,” the company said.
Five years back, the annual losses recorded by Agalawatte Plantations amounted to over Rs. 500 million, whereas during the last quarter of 2019, Damro said the company was successful in operating as a profitable entity. The bank borrowings of Agalawatte Plantations too are now at minimum levels, reflecting great improvement and sustainability, after a long period of time. “However, owing to the downward trend in world rubber prices, they are now in the midst of initiating a strategy in controlling costs to mitigate the anticipated impact on revenues,” it said.
Damro is also of the view that the current global crisis that has been created by the COVID-19 pandemic is a temporary setback and thus will not deter them in forging ahead with future plans, such as the “construction of a 700-room hotel in Kollupitiya adjoining Hotel Marino Beach and in this aspect Damro engineers and consultants are now in the midst of completing the structural design and M&E of the project”.