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| Sunday, 18 April 2004 |
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Ceylon Leather goes Dutch Ceylon Leather Products Ltd (CLPL), the largest leather producer in Sri Lanka, plans to export leather, leather footwear and accessories to Germany and Holland in the near future. CEO, CLPL, Vasantha Gomez, said "At present we export our leather as well as footwear and accessories to Japan, Italy and Australia. We get orders from Japan every month while exports to Italy too are increasing, but it is always a niche market for leather products." "Our export earnings were Rs 50mln in 2002 and it doubled to Rs 100 mln in 2003. With the company breaking into new markets, we are confident that we can increase our export earnings substantially this year," he added. The company had recorded a profit of Rs 12.8 mln for the last financial year. At present, the company has more than a 50 percent share in the domestic genuine leather market. He said that it was also planning to strengthen its presence in the local market by broadbasing its product range in footwear as well as bags. Earlier, the company was supplying its products only to the Army but now it had deviated from that policy. It was now equipped with a Designs and Development Department, with the staff capable of designing footwear not only for gents but also for ladies and children as well. It had also introduced new designs for bags as well as other items. The CLPL has its origins dating back to the year 1939. The then government established its first shoe factory at Mattakkuliya in 1942 to manufacture boots and accessories for the armed forces. The government managed the factory till 1955 and, after the war, the factory diversified its production to manufacture shoes for the local and export market. Subsequently the factory was incorporated under the State Industrial Corporation Act of 1955 and, in 1957, the name was changed to Ceylon Leather Products Corporation. In 1962, a new shoe factory was established in Sri Lanka and 1970 saw the birth of the new tannery, the biggest in Sri Lanka. In 1972, another production line was established to manufacture leather goods such as travel/office bags, waist belts etc. In 1983 and 1984, the corporation received the Presidential export award for Outstanding Performance. In 1990, the new company, CLPL, was incorporated to take over the government owned business undertaking. In 1991, the government under the privatisation programme sold the controlling interest in CLPL to S.A.Perera & Company whose origins could be traced to the first decade of the last century with a long history in the leather trade. The board of directors of the company are S.A.B.B.N. Samarakkody, M.N.R. De Silva, M.A. Abeynaike, S.E. Satarasinghe, B.M. Amarasekera, Nihal Abeysekera and Dr Uditha Liyanage. |
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