CEAT Kelani Holdings won prestigious double honours at the National Business Excellence Awards 2024 presented by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL), reaffirming the company’s status as one of the country’s foremost manufacturing success stories.
The manufacturer of half of Sri Lanka’s pneumatic tyre requirements, CEAT Kelani won the National Business Excellence Award (NBEA) in the ‘Manufacturing – Other’ category and was the winner of the Criteria Award for Excellence in Local Market Reach, in recognition of the company’s success in responding to the challenging conditions that prevailed in the period assessed for these awards.
Notably, this was the fifth occasion that CEAT Kelani Holdings was recognized by the NCCSL for Business Excellence.
The latest awards recognize how, in a period of significant challenge for industry and business, where most companies focused on cutting costs and retaining market shares, CEAT Kelani Holdings took a remarkably different approach – one of increasing capacity, improving product quality and introducing new products, while investing in sustainability initiatives.
Commenting, on this approach, CEAT Kelani Managing Director Mr Ravi Dadlani elaborated that this was dictated by two factors, the opportunities created by the restrictions in the import of certain categories and sizes of tyres as part of the government’s efforts to conserve foreign exchange, and the company’s belief that it was its duty to step up and cater to the needs of the market, ensuring that economic activity and public transport were not affected by a shortage of tyres.
“As a result of this approach, CEAT Kelani used a period in which the size of the market shrank due to the economic downturn, to raise the bar on multiple fronts, to deliver better products and improve processes and to gear itself for the economic recovery that would follow,” he said.
Among the highlights of the period assessed for the National Business Excellence Awards for CEAT was a series of investments to rapidly expand production of passenger car radials (PCRs), that saw CEAT Kelani increase production by 172,000 radial tyres, introduce new technological advancements that significantly improved product quality, and launch the first locally-manufactured 17-inch tyres for SUVs.
Additionally, CEAT became the only locally-manufactured tyre brand in Sri Lanka to receive IATF 16949:2016 certification from the International Automotive Task Force (IATF) for compliance with the International Standard for Automotive Quality Management Systems.
CEAT also broke new ground by entering into Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) agreements with Mahindra, Lanka Ashok Leyland, DIMO and United Motors to supply tyres for locally-assembled vehicles, once again supporting the national effort to conserve foreign exchange. With these investments, the company also embarked on a brand premiumization initiative that resulted in new retail concepts being rolled out across its dealer network.
Another notable aspect of CEAT Kelani’s operations during this period was an investment of Rs 476 million in a High Tension (HT) metering roof-top photovoltaic panel solar power plant as part of the company’s efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of its manufacturing operations at its Kelaniya complex. The 2.4 MW solar power plant installed on the factory roof now offsets about 21 per cent of its consumption of electricity from the national grid and contributes to an omission of 42,326 Tons of CO₂ emissions.
The CEAT brand originated in Italy and is backed by extensive research and testing facilities in India and Germany. The largest domestic manufacturer of cross-ply and radial tyres in Sri Lanka, CEAT’s manufacturing operations encompass pneumatic tyres in the radial (passenger cars, vans and SUVs), commercial (Bias-ply and radial), motorcycle, three-wheeler and agricultural vehicle segments.
Besides manufacturing half of Sri Lanka’s pneumatic tyre requirements, CEAT Kelani exports about 20 per cent of its production to 16 countries and plays a significant role in helping the national economy conserve foreign exchange by reducing dependence on imported tyres. The joint venture’s cumulative investment in Sri Lanka over the past decade alone exceeds Rs 8.5 billion.