Noritake invests Rs. 300m on pocelain printing plant

Noritake Lanka Porcelain Ltd., a pioneer porcelain tableware manufacturer, set up its state-of-the-art printing plant in Matale with an investment of Rs. 300 million to enhance sophisticated designs.

Tamio Marubayashi Pic : Chinthaka Kumarasinghe

The new printing technology is expected to increase the production capacity from 100,000 sheets to 150,000 sheets per month and minimise the printing cycle time. The targeted turnover for a month would be over Rs. 400 million. Manager Executive Officer, Group General Manager, Tabletop Group, Noritake, Tamio Marubayashi said, Noritake parent company in Japan has decided to invest more in Sri Lanka as the environment for investments is favourable.

“Despite adverse conditions faced by Noritake Japan due to the global recession not a single employee was retrenched in Sri Lanka though the company laid off over 150 employees in Japan”, he said.

Noritake survived the storms of the global crisis due to its strong market penetration. Leading players in the ceramics industry such as Royal Doulton and Wedgewood went bankrupt due to the global financial crisis.

Noritake, which is a name of a city in Japan was set up in 1904 and commenced operations in Sri Lanka in 1972 as the first joint venture company.

Noritake is rated among the top five leading global companies such as Lenox, Wedgewood, Royal Doulton, Villeroy Bosch. USA, UK, Indonesia and Thailand are some of the main export markets of Noritake Lanka. The company exports around 85 percent of its products while the rest is for the domestic market.

Marubayashi said the company was happy over the decision taken by the government to withdraw the Duty on LP Gas mid this year which is highly beneficial to the industry.

LF