India’s Dabur to enter Lanka, invest $15 m in beverage plant

MUMBAI (Reuters): Consumer products maker Dabur India said on Tuesday it will invest $15 million in Sri Lanka to set up a new export-oriented beverage manufacturing plant to cash in on the rising demand for fruit-based beverages.

Dabur India makes health and hair care products under the brand ‘Dabur’ and ‘Vatika’ and fruit-beverages under ‘Real’.

The company, which signed an agreement with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka for this venture, said in a statement that the investment marks its entry into the island nation.

Dabur has set up Dabur Lanka Pvt Ltd, to be incorporated under its wholly-owned unit Dabur International, which handles overseas operations.

“The demand for fruit-based juices and beverages under the Real brand has been reporting strong growth month-on-month. Dabur’s food business had reported an over 28 percent growth in 2010/11 despite supply constraints,” Chief Executive Sunil Duggal said.

“As continued high growth is expected in the future too, we are setting up this new facility to augment our production capacity for fruit-based beverages and meet the growing demand.” Duggal added.

            

The new plant, which will be set up at Gampaha, north of Colombo, will have a monthly capacity of 280,000 cases and will be commissioned in Aug-Sept 2012.

Dabur has manufacturing plants in Nepal, Bangladesh, Dubai, Nigeria, Egypt and Turkey among others.

About 22 per cent of Dabur’s sales come from international markets, including African nations, Nepal and Bangladesh.

“Building manufacturing facility in Sri Lanka was an important strategic decision for Dabur as manufacturing presence here gives us a competitive edge that we intend to utilize in full,” Duggal said.