Sri Lanka’s leading apparel manufacturer Hela Clothing has set up operations in Egypt in order to tap more revenues and serve its clientele better.
Doing so, Hela has become the first Sri Lanka manufacturer to foray into Egypt – a North-East African country.
It’s worth noting here that, apart from having 7 factories in Sri Lanka, Hela is already operational in Kenya and Ethiopia – two African countries with large apparel manufacturing base – for over 5 years now and has seen remarkable growth in its business operations.
According to local media report, Hela acquired a distressed asset – an apparel manufacturing factory in Alexandria in Egypt with 1,000 employees previously managed by a far eastern company.
The acquired factory is a vertical plant spanning 220,000 square feet with facilities for fabric and accessories’ manufacturing.
“Via the venture in Egypt, we hope to harness potential similar to Turkey’s apparel export market, which amounts to US $ 20 billion. Via Egypt there is quicker access to European and US markets, reducing lead time,” commented, Dilanka Jinadasa, CEO, Hela Clothing.
With the Egypt acquisition, Hela, via its investment arm Hela Investment Holdings, has invested close to US $ 25 million in the past five years and increased its capacity to 1.20 million man hours with average year-on-year growth of 20 per cent, as reported by Daily FT.
