GRI laid the foundation stone for the second phase of a US$100 million project with a new manufacturing facility in Badalgama recently, to expand its specialty tyre production to meet growing global demand for its products.
The new factory is the next phase of GRI’s expansion currently underway, including the new mixing facility and will total the overall investment to $100 million. In January 2018 GRI launched a world-class specialty tyre manufacturing facility with an investment of over $40 million. The new factory is an expansion of this facility and is expected to be completed by December.
Managing Director of GRI, Prabhash Subasinghe said, “It has been rewarding to see how our products have been so well received in an extremely competitive market and lauded for its superlative quality, service and innovation – we are well-positioned to carve a niche for Sri Lankan specialty tyres in the world market.”
CEO of GRI, Dr. Mahesha Ranasoma said, “The new manufacturing facility will be equipped with state-of-the-art machinery and is set to quadruple GRI’s current production capacity bringing it to 750,000 tyres per year and a total capacity of 100 tons per day. The new factory will focus on agriculture tyres with a large share dedicated for advanced radial agriculture tires.
“We will also be increasing employment by 100% and build the GRI team to 500 factory employees through this expansion; covering production, engineering, quality assurance, advanced technology, research and development” said noting the significance of the new facility,” he said.
Executive Director of GRI, Ananda Caldera said, “The new facility will add 11,600 square metres of production area that will take the main tyre plant to 22,400 sq. mt. (240,000 sq. ft. A key feature in the new production plant is that it will equip GRI with the ability to manufacture larger sized agricultural tyres.
“Our maximum tyre size now is 50 inches. We will soon manufacture tyres up to 60 inches in size in the new production plant to meet growing market demand and cater to our customer requirements,” he said.