Royal Ceramics Lanka (RCL), a manufacturing conglomerate with diversified interest in tiles and associated products, has ventured into Australia buying a distribution company, an RCL official said. “We are in Australia with our tile business. We acquired a distribution company some two months ago to distribute tiles that we export to Australia,” he said. He [...]

The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Royal Ceramics expands to Australia

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Royal Ceramics Lanka (RCL), a manufacturing conglomerate with diversified interest in tiles and associated products, has ventured into Australia buying a distribution company, an RCL official said.

“We are in Australia with our tile business. We acquired a distribution company some two months ago to distribute tiles that we export to Australia,” he said. He added that they’re on the lookout for an aluminum fabrication company as well. “This is to further add value to our products.”

RCL, owned by businessman Dhammika Perera gained dominance in the domestic tile industry acquiring 76.7 per cent of Lanka Ceramic in May 2013, the holding company of its direct competitor LankaTile which specializes in floor tiles. RCL’s network consists of 49 showrooms and a network of over 350 direct and sub dealers Sri Lanka.

RCL’s market share of the domestic floor tiles market is estimated to be a near 60 per cent by analysts, while it’s also exposed to the wall tile industry via the acquisition Lanka Wall Tiles where it effectively holds 47 per cent of this only wall tiles company which is the manufacturer in Sri Lanka.

RCL is also sole sanitaryware manufacturer in the country with a share of nearly 50 per cent of the market. RCL’s core market consists of domestic households and projects, according to company data. As such, domestic revenue spearheads group financials adding nearly 96 per cent while export market revenue adds nearly 4 per cent.

The parent company of RCL is the Perera-controlled Vallibel One which a diversified conglomerate. RCL directly operates four main factories. The Horana factory (Western Province) with a capacity of 11,000 square meters per day manufactures ceramic tiles whilst porcelain tiles are manufactured in Eheliyagoda (Sabaragamuwa Province) where capacity stands at nearly 6000 square metres per day.

RCL has shifted to manufacturing larger value added tiles led by demographic trends and attracts a premium to comparative local and imported tiles. Analysts said that the local ceramic industry battles imported tiles from China, Italy and East Asia which caters to a majority of the new constructions.

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