Ravago Lanka, Young An International enter long-term plastics raw material agreement

Friday, 30 January 2015 00:37 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Belgium based plastics distribution house, Ravago through their local subsidiary Ravago Lanka inked a long term agreement to supply Korean Company Young An International their plastics raw material needs in Sri Lanka. The Young An Hat Company was founded in 1959 by the current Chairman Sung Hak Baik with the opening of a small men’s hat shop in Seoul, South Korea. Since that initial single storefront, Chairman Baik has masterfully grown the Young An into a multi-billion US dollar corporation that includes global operations in headwear manufacturing, material handling (Clark Forklift), Daewoo Bus and Hamyong Farm, Inc.

Young An Hat Vice President Jay Powell and Ravago Lanka Managing Director Chavinka Sumanatilleke The Young An Hat Company include five manufacturing facilities located in Vietnam, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as well as three distribution companies located in North America. Young An made Sri Lanka the home of their first hat factory outside of Korea back in 1987 and now operates two great facilities in Malwaththa and Biyagama employing nearly 1,000 people and producing 300,000 dozen hats and caps annually. Ravago was founded in 1961 by Raf Van Gorp in Arendonk, Belgium. Ravago group represents over 3,400,000 metric tons of annual polymer sales serving 40,000 active customers through 200 offices across more than 50 countries worldwide. Ravago’s production competence consists of 23 manufacturing facilities of which 18 recycling and compounding plants in North America, Europe and Turkey with a combined annual capacity of over 500,000 metric tons and five production plants in Belgium, Greece, Turkey and Russia. Today, the Ravago Group with over eight billion dollars in sales is the number one service provider in the global market of plastics, rubber and chemicals. According to Ravago Lanka Managing Director Chavinka Sumanatilleke and Young An Hat Vice President of Operations Jay Powell, this was a win-win situation for both companies. Young An international was able to get a cost saving as well as get the material just in time through Ravago’s local and Singapore based warehouses. For Ravago Lanka it was the perfect opportunity to grow the local business using the regional capabilities and also would be a stepping stone to signing up similar customers in Sri Lanka.