Ansell opens 4th R&D centre in the world in Sri Lanka

By Rashika Fazali

In a move that will help the rubber industry, Ansell, a global leader in protection solutions with sales of US$ 1.4 billion, recently launched the 16,000 square foot state-of-the-art Research and Development (R&D) centre in the Biyagama Export Zone.

With an investment of around US$ 2 million, this new R&D centre becomes Ansell’s fourth centre among other newly-constructed R&D centres in Malaysia, Mexico, and North America.

However, the speciality of the Sri Lanka centre is that it will act as the mother centre to all the other centres which will be used for testing, development, etc., stated Industrial Solutions GBU President and General Manager and Ansell Head of Advanced Concepts and New Technologies Scott Corriveau.

Speaking at the launch held at the Hilton Colombo, Corriveau stated that the facility would have an applications lab that would have the ability to benchmark competition, an advanced chemical lab amongst other advanced developments. It will also feature a pilot line and have CAD/CAM design capabilities.

In addition, he mentioned that the R&D centre would recruit 30 science and technology specialist from the Biyagama area.

Ansell CEO and Managing Director Magnus Nicolin stated: “Ansell has a long track record of manufacturing high quality industrial and medical products in Sri Lanka and new product development will now complement manufacturing and expand our presence in the region.”

He added that Ansell has 18 future plans in various parts of the world – mostly in Asia, two in Europe, and three in the US, two in Mexico, and two in Brazil. However their plan in Sri Lanka is by far the best, stated Nicolin.

Commenting on their expectations, he said: “We are not expecting just productivity or efficiency, but also innovation and free-spirited thinking.”

Giving his maiden speech after his new appointment, Board of Investment (BOI) Chairman and Director General Dr. Lakshman Jayaweera stated that firstly Sri Lanka should make an effort to take the lead in innovation and secondly identify its resources.

He added: “We urge foreign investors to consider these factors when evaluating the possibility of investing in Sri Lanka in R&D facilities. I think this will be a win-win situation both for the investor who can conduct research in Sri Lanka at a lower cost and to the country, which will be able to develop its in-house R&D  capability and move towards a knowledge-based economy.”

Elaborating on the impact of this new R&D centre on the rubber industry, Sri Lanka Export Development Board Director General Sujatha Weerakoon stated: “While we do innovate to compete in the international market, it is very important to set up a R&D centre fully endorsed by the Government. It is necessary to come up with innovative products at cost-competing prices, create value added products which cater to the international market demand and have customer appeal, and to differentiate our products against competitors.”

She also noted that last year the rubbery industry produced around 153,000 metric tons of rubber and earned US$ 857 million from rubber exports. Weerakoon also revealed that there has been a 28% increase in rubber production from 2009 to 2012.