Having invested in an aluminum company last year, Parquet (Ceylon) PLC (Parquet) has plans to buy a mortar and grout production plant this year, officials said.
“We’ll be investing in a crushing plant worth Rs. 40 million to be placed at the Balummahara factory,” Mahendra Jayasekera, Managing Director – Parquet, told the Business Times. He said this was done in a bid to increase Parquet’s grout and mortar production and also increase its supply of high quality silica powder which is high in demand now, owing to the construction boom. Both these products are used in the construction industry.
He said that two months ago, the company bought 62% of Ceykor Aluminium Industries for Rs. 100 million. He added that the company wants to diversity into construction related materials and find this to be a good opportunity as aluminium is now used more and more in the construction industry. He said with this new acquisition in place, Parquet is eyeing more innovative construction solutions with Korean and European collaboration.
“We want to come up with new aluminium profiles, which are not marketed in the country,” Mr. Jayasekera said.
He added that Parquet has plans to invest Rs. 100 million by March this year into this aluminium factory and from this year it should breakeven. “We’ll be marketing the products of this firm under the ‘Swiss Tech’ brand, which is owned by Parquet,” he added.
He said that Parquet’s parent firm, Lanka Tiles was rebranded as Lanka Floor Tiles (LFL) last year. “This was done to reflect our manufacturing in both floor as well as wall tiles,” he explained. He said that LFL is now in full capacity at 9, 000 square metres (sq) per day and will be expanding this to 14, 000 sq per day.
LFL’s 19-day strike over wage demands ended last year after a mutual agreement was reached between unions and the management. |
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