United Motors invests Rs. 100 mln on JCB machinery and service facility in Colombo
With construction being an exciting and growing industry in Sri Lanka given the real estate boom, United Motors Lanka (UML) is investing Rs. 100 million on a brand new machinery and service facility in Peliyagoda. Partnering with JCB, a leading construction machinery brand in the world, UML unveiled the facility on Thursday.
At the launch UML Group CEO and Executive Director, Chanaka Yatawara stated, “Construction is an exciting and growing industry in Sri Lanka and we at UML wanted to explore the opportunities and invested by collaborating with JCB, a world-renowned heavy equipment brand.” The company moved into the construction industry in 2017, he added.
He also mentioned that almost 9 per cent of the GDP came from the construction sector last year. Heavy investments are continuing to be made in building roads and highways, ports, high rise buildings, port city project, hotels, major power projects, megapolis, housing and so on. Rs. 200 billion has contributed to the GDP by the construction sector, equaling that of agriculture. Some 700,000 persons were employed directly and indirectly in construction related employment which is about 8 per cent of the working population in the country, noted Mr. Yatawara. Over 2,500 construction firms are registered in Sri Lanka, he added.
JCB is a leading brand in the UK, Europe, Russia and India with more than 50 per cent market share in all these countries. The brand’s quality is uncommendable with a portfolio of products, he emphasised.
Elaborating on Sri Lanka’s construction equipment market Mr. Yatawara stressed that in addition to the brand’s imports over 1200 used machines are imported every year. “The market has grown 30 per cent from 2016 to 2017. There could be a large market for material handling application and there is a big opportunity to be a player in the excavator space,” he noted.
Sale of JCB product range, mechanical repairs, painting, welding, servicing and maintenance will be done at the new facility in Peliyagoda. UML will also use ‘JCB Livelink’, a technology developed by JCB to monitor the performance of all machinery. The technology will identify and alert the JCB users of any urgent issues or a decrease in efficiency of the machine and will provide details for servicing and product support.