Australia’s United Petroleum to diversify into food, non petroleum items with USD 20-30 mn investment
Australia’s United Petroleum who will be engaging in the business of petroleum distribution also plans to diversify into many more sectors including food, lubricants and non petroleum items in Sri Lanka.
Dr. Prabath Samarasinghe, Director and CEO of UPL told Daily News Business that they will initially invest around USD 20 to USD 30 million in the first or second quarters of 2025 and introduce many food products under Pie Face brand to Sri Lankan customers. He also said that UPL would relocate one of its factories in Australia to Sri Lanka mainly to reduce the high logistic costs they face exporting from Australia to Europe and Asia.
“When setting up the company in Sri Lanka our logistic cost of exporting is less and we can look at more volume.”
He said India is a huge market and if they can export from Sri Lanka to India it is a big advantage. Dr. Samarasinghe said they plan to set up the factory in a BOI zone and intend to export 80% of their production to India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the Middle East region. Meanwhile, commenting on the petroleum business in Sri Lanka he said that the company will commence its operations in Sri Lankan tomorrow (August 28) under its wholly-owned subsidiary, United Petroleum Lanka (UPL) Private Limited.
He said that according to the BOI they made an USD 27.5 million initial investment. “But really speaking we are keeping USD 300 million in Sri Lanka for one year. We spend our money and bring fuel to the country and in the first year we can’t repatriate that money. Hence in total the investment is about USD 300 million.” He also said they would be reinvesting their returns within Sri Lanka in the future.
Founded by entrepreneurs Avi Silver and Eddie Hirsch, the company expanded its footprint to Sri Lanka for the first time. This multi-billion-dollar, customer-centric enterprise focused on delivering quality, safety, and environmental standards, set to implement best practices in the Sri Lankan retail petroleum market.
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