Saturday, 11 October 2014 00:47
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Starco, a leading manufacturer of solid tyres has established a solid tyre factory in Sri Lanka to meet the exacting demands of Fork Lift Truck applications.
The new facility, opened last month has a capacity of 100,000 tyres per annum. It replaces the original Starco facility in the country three years after starting production. The Denmark-based company says that the success of the venture has led to the need for a larger, more modern and better equipped factory.
The facility’s capacity of 100,000 solid tyres per year includes the production of Starco’s ‘premium’ Tusker and its ‘standard’ Unicorn fork lift ranges.
Starco says that establishing a solid tyre manufacturing operation in Sri Lanka had married Lean manufacturing philosophy with the resourcefulness and creativity of the local population.
Starco CEO Peer Ejlersgaard said that the new venture in Sri Lanka is the company’s first attempt at manufacturing their own rubber tyres.
“Previously we relied on the manufacturing capacity of others, but with our fork lift truck tyre range we discovered that no manufacturer could deliver the quality and guarantee the manufacturing capacity, which we demanded, so Sri Lanka was our solution and we gave it our best shot,” Ejlersgaard said. During its first three years, the Sri Lanka factory has produced the Tusker and Unicorn FLT tyres to Starco’s required level of quality. As a result of the products’ success, expanding the factory and implementing a more efficient workflow to achieve a higher manufacturing capacity had become necessary.
Starco opened the first plant in 2012 with an investment of about $ 4.4 million.
The new facility in Sri Lanka is expected to remain the mainstay of Starco solid tyre manufacturing, serving the global FLT market.
The Starco Group has more than 50 years’ experience, and services more than 26 countries from its worldwide distribution network.
