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[June 2009]
Dankotuwa Porcelain Ties Up With Ukraine’s Betta-Farfor
Dankotuwa Porcelain PLC (Dankotuwa, Sri Lanka) recently signed an agreement with Betta-Farfor Limited to establish that company as its sole agent for the Ukrainian market. Dankotuwa started business with Betta-Farfor a few years ago and the business has grown gradually and firmly over the years. This relationship is now firmed up with the signing of this agency agreement.
Established over 15 years ago, Betta-Farfor is the market leader in the trading of fine quality tableware, glassware, kitchenware and giftware in Ukraine. The company is armed with a strong sales force and has an nationwide distribution network in Ukraine with the main showrooms located in Kiev and Lviv.
Ukraine has a population of around 45 million and, although facing economic difficulties like the rest of Europe, it is noted for high domestic consumption arising from good pension schemes and rising wages.
Volodymyr Viktorovych Ieromenko, Valerii Ganchurin and Liliya Nykolenko went to Sri Lanka last month to commence new projects, select new designs for the Ukrainian market and finalise the agreement. They stated that since they deal with the upper segment of the market they are very happy with the quality and service of Dankotuwa Porcelain. Since the Ukrainian market prefers heavy and very ornate designs, Dankotuwa is the natural supplier mainly because of its ability to manufacture difficult shapes and produce very intricate surface designs. Although the market situation is difficult at the moment, Betta-Farfor believes that there is a good demand for the high end products made by Dankotuwa.
As part of its international market strategy, Dankotuwa has been diversifying its markets geographically. Having had only a handful of markets a decade ago, it now exports to over 20 destinations. "Although for the factory it is more convenient to have larger volumes from a few customers, we do not want to be too dependent on a few customers, or mostly servicing a particular segment," said Sarath Mallawa Arachchi, Chief Operating Officer of Dankotuwa Porcelain, further elaborating that because of the spread of customers Dankotuwa still has 70% of last year's level of orders so far, while many other porcelain manufacturers report that their orders have halved this year.
ENDS