Brush manufacturer and exporter of sanitary maintenance tools, BPPL Holdings PLC announced plans to exit the Indonesian market, due to on-going losses from heavy competition amongst established brands in that country.

“Our JAB branded goods in Indonesia, however, did not perform as expected due to heavy competition amongst established brands in that country. We, therefore, have taken a decision to cease activities effective from 1st April ’20 due to on-going losses,” BPPL Managing Director Dr. Anush Amarasinghe,  told shareholders in the annual report 2019/20.

The company had limited success in its strategy of supplying own-branded cleaning tools to household market in the South- East Asian region. Nevertheless, their ‘Tip Top’ branded goods sold in Sri Lanka performed reasonably well with a 7% increase in revenue compared to the previous year.

“The growth would have been higher if not for pandemic related closures in March ahead of the traditional April New Year holiday buying season,” Amarasinghe stressed.

For the year ended in March 31, 2020, the United States continued to account for a dominant 73% share of Group revenue; same as in the previous year. Australia was next with a 7% share (up from 6%) followed by UK; 6% (up from 3%). India’s share of sales fell in the year due to the absence of excess waste bottle/flake sales.

Under its diversification programme BPPL Holdings PLC has diversified its production into the two categories of brushes and filament extrusion, supported by the commissioning of a synthetic yarn spinning facility and expansion of the synthetic filament production facility.

The Group has also entered new markets and currently caters to the apparel sectors in Sri Lanka, in addition to the North American region, which is the primary market for its brushware. Due to the manufacture of recycled products, the filament extrusion business offers many new opportunities for the Group. The Company is already the leading plastic recycler in Sri Lanka.