Elephant House gets bullish; kicks off Rs. 5.7 b expansion

Popular consumer foods brand Elephant House is getting bullish about future prospects judging by its decision to roll out a significant Rs. 5.7 billion expansion and modernisation plan.

John Keells Holdings, the parent of Ceylon Cold Stores (CCS), on Friday revealed that a new ice cream plant, with an investment of Rs. 3.2 billion, and a modern bottling line at a cost of Rs. 2.5 billion are due to commence shortly. The move is to cater to the envisaged demand and address existing capacity constraints.

For CCS the investment is the biggest in recent years and for JKH it is equally significant in the diversified blue chip’s manufacturing business.

The expansion move comes on the back of the improved performance of JKH’s consumer foods and retail business. In the first quarter this business segment generated a group profit before tax of Rs. 1.6 billion, up by 55% from a year earlier. CCD’s first half revenue rose by 31% to Rs. 21 billion and gross profit by 39% to Rs. 3.78 billion. Pre-tax profit grew by 56% to Rs. 2.68 billion and after tax by 52% to Rs. 1.9 billion.

The Elephant House brand offers 18 flavours of soft drinks and 32 flavours of ice creams. The retail sector has over 50 Keells Supermarkets.  “Profitability of the Frozen Confectionery and Beverage businesses were driven by double-digit growth in volumes and improved margins,” said JKH Chairman Susantha Ratnayake, who disclosed that JKH Group profit before tax in 2Q grew by 14% to Rs. 5.17 billion and the first half figure by 16% to Rs. 8.75 billion.



The new plants for CCS are expected to be completed in two years. The Elephant House brand is celebrating 150 years of operation this year. The existing bottling plant was commissioned in 1998.

In the 2Q, the manufacturing business saw revenue of Rs. 3.78 billion, up from Rs. 3 billion a year earlier, while the segment’s result was Rs. 1.05 billion, up from Rs. 688 million. 

The retail business’ revenue was Rs. 7.15 billion, up from Rs. 5.2 billion while the segment’s result was Rs. 292.5 million, up from Rs. 210.8 million. For six months manufacturing turnover grew from Rs. 5.9 billion to Rs. 7.4 billion and that of retail from Rs. 10.3 billion to Rs. 14 billion. The pre-tax profit of manufacturing rose to Rs. 2.2 billion from Rs. 1.2 billion and that of retail rose from Rs. 430 million to Rs. 755 million.

The Retail sector continued its strong performance with steady growth in average basket values and customer footfall contributing positively towards a year-on-year growth in same store sales coupled with a notable incremental contribution from the newly opened outlets. Nine new outlets have been opened during the period under review and a further 11 outlets are due to be opened during the remainder of the financial year.

Last year the CCS Company contributed approximately 79% to the Group’s profits and accounted for 72% of its total assets. 

Both companies achieved their best performance to date in terms of revenue and profit, surpassing those set in 2014/2015. As a result, the Group experienced a significant growth of 88% in consolidated profit after tax to Rs. 2.87 billion.

In FY16, the beverage and ice-cream categories achieved volume growths of 26% and 21% respectively against the previous year. This volume growth saw the company’s top line grow by 25%, thus facilitating a 94% growth in profits due to the high operating leverage of the business. Retail saw top line growth of 22% in the Retail business on account of the same store sales growth of 13%. After tax profit grew by 156% to Rs. 905 million. 

The robust growth in sales and the bottomline at CCS comes despite the company earlier this year fearing a moderation of consumption.

Sri Lanka’s carbonated soft drinks market is estimated at 216 million litres with per capita consumption of approximately 10 litres. The CSD market grew by an estimated 20% during the year, supported by the consumption boom in 2015. The frozen confectionery market is estimated at 40 million litres per annum, while per capita ice cream consumption is around 2 litres, still below its regional counterparts. This market is expected to have grown by 18% in 2015.