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| Sunday, 29 February 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Healthy turnover and profit by DPL group A strong performance by its plantation sector operations and a greater focus on higher value products in the hand protection sector has helped the Dipped Products (DPL) Group achieve a healthy growth in turnover and profit at the end of the third quarter of 2003-04. The group comprising rubber glove manufacturing, distribution and marketing and plantations, has reported a turnover growth of 41 per cent to Rs. 3.6 billion for the nine months ending December 31, and a pre-tax profit of Rs. 287 million, up 66 per cent over the corresponding period last year. As a result of this performance, group earnings per share increased to Rs. 10.02 from Rs. 7.55, the company said. The company announced that the board of directors of Dipped Products Limited has declared an interim dividend of 20 per cent earned entirely out of tax exempt profit. In March last year, Dipped Products declared an interim dividend of 15 per cent. A spokesman said the group's rubber glove business comprising the local manufacturing operations of DPL, and the company's Italian distribution and marketing company ICO Guanti SpA, had been boosted by several positive developments in the period under review. These included the strategic allocation of more capacity for the manufacture of higher value products yielding better margins and the appreciation of the Euro against the US Dollar generating a higher contribution from ICO Guanti SpA which serves the Italian and some European markets. Coupled with lower interest rates for dollar and rupee loans, cost reduction and productivity enhancements at the production floor, these factors enabled DPL to weather the substantial increases during the year in the cost of its main raw material, natural rubber. Export volumes also grew as a result of an improvement in the global economy, the spokesman disclosed. He said the high end industrial gloves produced by two of DPL's manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka, Neoprex and Venigros had helped maintain overall margins. Referring to the group's plantation sector company, the spokesman said Kelani Valley Plantations Ltd., (KVPL) had doubled pre-tax profit for the nine months ended 30 September 2003 from Rs. 34 million in the comparative period of last year to Rs. 73 million, as a result of improved rubber prices and an improvement in the quality of its teas. KVPI's turnover grew to Rs. 1.1. billion from Rs. 1 billion, an increase of 10 per cent. KVPL's results were also boosted by the profits earned by its strategic alliance company Mabroc Teas (Pvt) Ltd., in the quarter ended June 2003. Established in 1976 as a division of the Hayleys Group, DPL pioneered the manufacture of latex gloves for export in Sri Lanka. A public listed company with net assets of Rs. 1.65 billion, DPL is today the fourth largest non-medical glove manufacturer in the world. |
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