Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Sri Lanka Piramal Glass local sales, exports rise sharply

Nov 02, 2010 (LBO) - Piramal Glass Ceylon made a net profit of 157 million rupees in the September 2010 quarter as domestic sales rebounded after the end of a war and exports grew sharply, the company said.

The firm, a unit of India's Piramal Glass, is recovering from losses incurred to set up a bigger factory in a new location, and had reached breakeven levels with a profit of just 734,000 in the same quarter the year before.

Sales rose eight percent to just over a billion rupees from a year ago mainly driven by domestic sales which grew 27 percent during the quarter while the premium segment in the export market grew 30 percent.

Piramal Glass Ceylon, which ended the last financial year in the red, made a net profit of 53 million rupees in the June 2010 quarter.

The company makes glass containers for speciality food and beverage, cosmetics, perfumery, agro chemicals, wine and pharmaceuticals customers.

Chief executive Sanjay Tiwari said all the sectors in the domestic market, namely food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, liquor and cosmetics, showed double-digit growth during the quarter under review.

In the export market, the premium segment contributed to 70 percent of export sales, with a growth of 30 percent.

"All this contributed to the growth of 43 percent in the gross profit margins of the company to 385.2 million rupees over the corresponding period of the past year," the statement said. "The gross margins for the second quarter as a percentage to sales increased to 38 percent from 28 percent of that of the second quarter of the last financial year."

“The company has been continuously focusing on developing niche products in the export segment which gives better realisations," Tiwari said.

Domestic sales grew by 28 percent to 1,410 million rupees from 1,098 million rupees of the previous year, while export sales for the period were 484 million, which contributed about a quarter of total company revenue.

"During the first half of the current financial year the company shifted its focus to the premium segment in its exports which resulted in a growth of 15 percent."

The interest cost was down to 170.2 million rupees as against 360.9 million during the same period of the last financial year as the firm restructured part of its long-term loan to a foreign currency loan.

Vijay Shah, chairman of Piramal Glass Ceylon said the firm aims to fully serve the domestic market whilst increasing its business in the premium liquor and beverage segment in the international markets.

source - www.lbo.lk

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