Maskeliya Plantations said it has recorded a turnover of Rs. 776 million for the first quarter ending June 2008, up 31% over the corresponding period in the previous year.

The post-tax profit was Rs 52 million against a loss of Rs 5 million in the corresponding period last year, the company said in a press release. Maskeliya Plantations which maintained its eminent position in high end garden marks in terms of quality and price reaped the benefits of investments made in field and manufacturing process development during the last few years in the background of healthy market conditions, it said.

In view of the rising cost of energy, the company replaced factory heaters that use liquid fuel with firewood fired heaters resulting in substantial savings in firing cost. Maskeliya had grown over 500 hectares of fuel wood and timber over the last three years thereby now being self-sufficient with fuel wood supply.

Additionally, the company converted some of its factories into dual processing thereby being flexible and able to manufacture leafy grade teas, when required, to capitalise on the boom for leafy teas. Plans are underway to convert more factories into leafy type manufacture.

“We expect tea prices to remain strong at national level including that of high grown teas in the foreseeable future. We are confident that our new initiatives in agricultural and manufacturing practices and employee relations including productivity based incentives will enable us to maintain this momentum and achieve better results in the ensuing quarters, particularly during the last two quarters, when the traditional quality season would boost prices, thus ending the year with much higher profitability,” says Ravi Kumararatne, Managing Director RPC Management Services.

Maskeliya Plantations is managed by RPC Plantation Management Co Ltd, a wholly owned Subsidiary Company of diversified blue-chip conglomerate Richard Pieris & Co PLC..