Pelwatte Sugar Industries PLC
| Public | |
| Traded as | CSE: SUGA.N0000 |
| Industry | Sugar |
| Founded | 1981 |
| Headquarters | Buttala, Sri Lanka |
Key people | Harry Jayawardena (Chairman) |
| Products | Sugar and Alcohol |
| Revenue | $20 Million (2009/2010) |
Number of employees | 4,200 |
| Website |
Pelwatte Sugar Industries PLC is a listed as SUGA.N0000 in the Colombo Stock Exchange. The main sugar factory of the group is located in Buttala in The Moneragala District in the Uva Province, about 225 km from Colombo to the east of the country. Pelwatte Sugar was incorporated on 19 February 1981 as Pelwatte Sugar Company Ltd. . It became a Public Limited Liability company on 10 December 1982. In 1990, the holding company changed its name to Pelwatte Sugar Industries Ltd. It was first quoted on the Colombo Stock Exchange in 1984.[1]
History
In 1978 a World Bank funded study was undertaken to identify areas in Sri Lanka that are suitable for sugar cane cultivation to reduce the country's dependency of imported sugar. Based on the findings Booker Tate PLC - of United Kingdom (formerly known as Booker Agriculture International Ltd. - BAI) carried out a feasibility[1] of introducing cane cultivation under rain fed conditions and setting up a sugar factory at Pelwatte in the Moneragala District of the Uva province of Sri Lanka. In 1981 Pelwatte Sugar Company Ltd was incorporated as a state owned company and functioned under the management of Booker Tate PLC . In 2002 the Government of Sri Lanka sold its stake in the company in the Colombo Stock Exchange. A Sri Lankan company named Master Divers (Private) Limited purchased 53.5% of the Company for Rs. 300 million.
Current status
In March 2011 Master Divers sold approximately 47% of the issued capital of the company to Melstacorp which is a subsidiary of Distilleries Company of Sri LankaPLC.[2] DCSL PLC is listed as DIST.N0000 in the Colombo Stock Exchange. Master Divers (Private) Limited and related parties continue to hold approximately 36% of the capital.
Pelwatte Sugar (PSIL) produces approximately 450,000 MT of Sugar. Pelwatte Sugar Distilleries (Private) Ltd.(PSDL), is a subsidiary company which began operations in September 1997 to process ethyl alcohol and biocompost from molasses a by product of the sugar manufacturing process. The group employs about 1300 permanent workers, about 3100 casual and seasonal workers. The Company operates a sugar factory that has a crushing capacity of 3000 MT of sugar cane. It has the lease ownership of a nucleus estate of approximately 2000 ha, settler area of 3000 ha, and large number of growers in the Uva province.
Deshamanya Harry Jayawardena is the Chairman of Pelwatte Sugar Group. Sqn.Ldr Wimal Karunaratna (Managing Director (PSIL), Capt. Jagath Kahanda (Managing Director PSDL), Ariyaseela Wickramanayake, Dr. C.S Weeraratna (Independent, Non-Executive), Mr. Hershel Gunawardena (Independent, Non-Executive), Capt. Ranjith Wettewa, Mr. Damien Fernando (Non-Executive) and Mr. Maximus Peries are the directors of the company.
References
- 1 2 "Pelwatte Sugar Website". 2008-05-09. Retrieved 2011-07-28.
- ↑ "Pelwatte Sugar Website". Dailymirror.lk. 2011-03-24. Retrieved 2011-07-28.