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| Sunday, 23 June 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Daya Apparels buys 90% of Sevanagala Sugar Daya Apparel Export (Pvt) Ltd. has purchased 90 per cent of Sevanagala Sugar Industries Ltd. (SSIL) for an upfront fee of Rs 550 million. The Government proposes to gift 10 per cent of the shares to employees. The agreement was signed by Treasury Secretary Charitha Ratwatte and Chairman Daya Apparel Export Daya Gamage last Thursday. Chairman Gamage, who spoke to the Sunday Observer, was full of plans to revive the SSIL to a profitable venture while looking after the interests of its staff and farmers. Among his plans are improving the efficiency of the factory, increasing the sugar cane plantations, educating farmers to improve productivity and generating electricity using the waste of sugar cane. Mr Gamage plans to increase the efficiency of the factory within a month by educating the management and the staff. The factory has been in operation for 18 years. A survey revealed that production has been 283,000 tons during 2000. This came down to 243,000 tons the following year. This is ample proof that the efficiency of the factory has decreased, mainly due to lack of reinvestment. He said that water for cooling the machines is obtained from the Uda Walawe Reservoir. When the drought sets in, the factory does not sometimes function for two or more months. "Therefore we will invest in a cooling tower which will increase the efficiency of the machines. At present the capacity of the machines is 350,000 tons and plans are under way to increase it to 600,000 tons in the second stage," Gamage said. The sugar cane plantations have to be increased by 60-70 per cent to cater to the demand. "We will start plantations within the next three months so that we will be able to harvest it next year." Mr Gamage also plans to increase the number of outgrowers by 60-70%. At present there are 4,000 outgrowers, who give 95% of the sugar cane for processing. The nucleus plantation has 350 hectares but only about 50 hectares have been cultivated. the new management plans to increase the acreage under cultivation in order to make the maximum use of the land. The present harvest of the plantation is about 40-50 tons. He said that around 2.5 MW of electricity can be generated by using the waste of the sugar cane. Since the factory requires only around 1.4 - 1.5 MW, the balance will be fed to the national grid. This will be done within the next two months, assured Mr Gamage. Waste water is now thrown away, polluting the environment. "We will invest about Rs 80 million and build a waste water treatment plant and a plant to produce bio gas." The PERC has appointed a committee to look into the problems of the workers. The PERC has requested workers to give written submissions by June 23 and the committee will give solutions within two weeks. SSIL has 684 permanent and 820 casual employees. It produces 15,000-20,000 metric tons of sugar per annum. |
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