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| Sunday, 29 August 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Water, water everywhere... by Chanuka Mannapperuma Amidst the huge demand for safe drinking water, companies manufacturing bottled water have mushroomed in Sri Lanka as well. Of them,American Premium Water Systems (Pvt) Ltd is different as they give highest priority for quality while producing bottled water purified to meet the (WHO) standards. American Holdings's Chairman, Anura Kumarasinghe said having catered to the local market, they are now in the process of penetrating into the Indian market."Plans are also under way to commence operations on an ice, fruit juice and a Soda plant, he added. Though 97.5% of the world consists of water, only a mere 1% of it can be drunk in its pure form. Therefore water is a precious commodity worldwide and special emphasis is being laid on the provision of safe drinking water. At every place you will find someone holding or drinking from a bottle carrying the label "Pure Mineral Water " bottles. Kumarasinghe said that at first they started the company by creating 20 job opportunities." Now we have increased upto 300.Most workers reside in close proximity to the factory."Now we import parts of dispensers from India and China and assemble them in our factory." Deputy General Manager - Manoj Pathiraja said that , the plant is fully automated and we have the capacity to produce around 2500 five-gallon water bottles per day. "Our main clientele are some of the corporate giants, homes, offices, hotels, restaurants, hospitals and schools. American water is the official bottled water supplier for Sri Lankan Cricket and Rugby. "We have our own wells and we use our own distribution channels to deliver/ retail these products", Pathiraja added. "We have our factory to produce bottles and caps. It was established in 2003 to produce PET bottles and bottle caps. "Our subsidiaries buy 50% of our production. PET bottles ranging from 500ml to 18.9 Ltrs. Bottle caps of 28mm and 5 Gallon non-spill. He said that they are in the process of manufacturing wide mouthed PET jars as well in the future. American Premium Water systems has four water shops in Kurunegala, Anuradhapura, Kandy and Matara. "We hope to set up a new water shop in Vavuniya." There will be another two water shops in Colombo and at the plant premises. From these shops one can buy bottle caps, water bottles and dispensers. Already they have got the SLS and hope to get Asian bottle water certification shortly. Work is also underway for the certification of ISO and HACCP in the near future. The maintain a very impressive factory at Hanwella for water purification. Having started in 1996, American Premium Water Systems (Pvt)ltd is a joint venture between American liquid packaging system (ALPS) in San Francisco-USA ,Pride International with the owner of Trend International pvt ,Ltd Mohammed Fazal. |
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