Brush maker BPPL invests in new Rs.180mn filament extrusion plant

Listed brush maker, BPPL Holdings PLC said it has invested Rs.180 million in a new monofilament extrusion plant, which is expected to be commissioned by July/August this year.

“We invested heavily on our synthetic filament business in order to diversify and thereby reduce dependency on a single brushware-based product range during the past year,” the company said in its latest annual report released to the Colombo bourse yesterday. 

According to BPPL Holdings MD/CEO Dr. Anush Amarasinghe, the company has already received from new customers for synthetic filaments used in brushware. 
“We won significant sales orders for synthetic filaments (used in brushware) from new customers in North America where shipments are likely to commence in the second quarter of the Financial Year 2018/19,” he said.

Meanwhile, the company commissioned its multifilament (used as yarn for making fabric) production facility in March/April this year.

“Product sampling is currently being done for several customers in the apparel industry both in Sri Lanka and overseas. 

Again, we expect orders for these items to flow in from the second and third quarters of financial year 2018/19. I’m proud to say that this is the first fully-fledged polyester yarn spinning plant in Sri Lanka. The apparel industry the world over is increasingly moving,” Amarasinghe said. 

In order to supply raw materials to both these filament and yarn segments, the company had increased its post-consumer (waste) PET bottle collections during the year with monthly collections rising to 150-200 tonnes from an average of around 75 tonnes in financial year 2017/18.

The company said 200 tonnes is a fairly significant number as it accounts for approximately 17 percent  of the virgin PET imports into Sri Lanka.

BPPL Holdings currently has 125 PET bottle collection points across the country and is in the midst of converting some of these into collection centres.