Textured Jersey Lanka eyes South Asian expansion

10 Feb '12

3 min read

The Avissawella, Sri Lanka-based Textured Jersey Lanka (TJL) Limited is planning to expand both within Sri Lanka as well as in other countries in the South Asian sub-continent.

In fact, TJL had raised LK Rs. 1.2 billion in July 2011 through an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to expand either by setting up its own plant or by acquiring an existing garment factory in Sri Lanka. But the company had to postpone its plans in view of a slowdown in some of the Western countries.

Mr. Hasitha Premaratna, an official at TJL, informed fibre2fashion, “We are planning expansion in Sri Lanka and also abroad. We will focus on the South Asian sub-continent.”

“We were planning the expansion when we came up with the IPO in July, but we had certain limitations in terms of water supply in the industrial zone that we operate in right now. Also, there was a financial slowdown in many Western economies, soon after our IPO. So, we put our immediate expansion plans on hold and further evaluated things with a closer view,” he explains.

Explaining TJL's vision and growth, he says, “Last year, Sri Lanka imported US$ 270 million worth of fabrics, which gives an idea about the volume of apparel production in Sri Lanka. We believe there is a strong market for the products that we sell at the moment. Hence, we see a clear opportunity in Sri Lanka itself and we foresee that the South Asian sub-continent will continue to be a strong apparel destination, second best to China. As a result there is ample opportunity coming up and we see the business doubling over the next 4-5 years.”

Briefing about the time line for expansion, he says, “We see our capacity expansion kicking in by the end of next year for external expansion. For internal expansion, we might start pretty soon.”

Talking about current concerns, he avers, “First is the volatility in raw material prices. However, we do not expect large volatility of last year levels. Second is the concern with regard to availability of water at our current location, which is a hurdle in expanding our production capacity. We are working on different possibilities to handle this issue. Otherwise, we expect a positive long-term overall growth.”

Located in the Seethawaka Industrial Park, TJL is a Public Limited Liability Company with two of the best brands in the industry as major shareholders, Pacific Textiles and Brandix Lanka.

Hong Kong-based Pacific Textiles provides TJL with extensive support in Research and Development as well as manufacturing expertise. Brandix Lanka is Sri Lanka's largest apparel exporter servicing the world's finest brands, and partners Textured Jersey as a strategic link in the supply chain.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India