Dabur Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, a whollyowned subsidiary of India's leading consumer goods maker Dabur India Ltd, recently inaugurated its packaged fruit-based beverage manufacturing facility in Mirigama, Sri Lanka.

Established as a Board of Investment (BOI) of Sri Lanka venture, this new manufacturing facility has been set up with an initial investment of US $ 16 million and officials confirmed that it would increase up to US $ 21 million during the next 1-1.5 years.

The plant has a capacity to produce 280,000 cases of fruit-based beverages every month under the brand name ‘Real'.

Dabur India Chairman, Dr. Anand Burman said that the company was committed to working with the Sri Lankan government to develop the country's economy with investment of this nature. “We can assure that there will be more projects to follow.”

“Our plant in Sri Lanka represents a key milestone for Dabur,” Dr. Burman noted.

The new plant will initially employ around 75 people at the start of production in May 2013, and the intention is to increase the number of staff gradually to keep pace with the demand and capacity expansion.

Meanwhile Dabur India CEO, Sunil Duggal stated that Dabur's food business had reported a growth over 25 percent in 2012/13 despite the supply constraints.

“As high growth is expected to continue, we are setting up this new facility to augment our production capacity for fruit-based beverages and meet the growing demand for our products,” he said.

Duggal went on to state that building a manufacturing facility in Sri Lanka was an important strategic decision for Dabur, as manufacturing presence in the country would give the company a competitive edge which it intends to utilize in full.

Initially the plant will manufacture five variants of fruit juice and thereafter expand to other 20 plus variants available in India. The output from the Sri Lankan factory will be for both local and export markets.