The Hindu Business Line : Freight Links International launches subsidiary in India

FREIGHT Links International, the Colombo-based freight forwarder and logistics service provider, has launched a wholly-owned subsidiary in India, namely, Cargoplan International India Pvt Ltd, and the first office of the subsidiary was opened here on Tuesday.

Briefing newspersons on the occasion, Mr Niral Kadawatharatchie, Chairman of Freight Links International, indicated the company would open the second office in Chennai shortly and two more offices in New Delhi and Mumbai within the year.

"We are targeting a five per cent share of the Indian market as early as possible but will be happy to do business worth $10 million within the next two to three years," Mr Kadawatharatchie said.

"Our projection is to achieve 10 per cent growth on a year-on-year basis," he said.

Kolkata held out the promise of big business opportunities, he said, explaining why the city was chosen as the location for the first office of its Indian subsidiary.

In Sri Lanka, the company was the market leader in tea logistics, and Kolkata too handled a sizeable quantity of tea for exports.

Besides, the company was already in touch with Hindustan Lever Ltd for handling its tea business and other companies such as South Asia Petrochemicals Ltd, Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd, Tata Tea Ltd, ITC Ltd and Philips Carbon Black Ltd for handling tea and other types of cargo. "Most important, we have the right kind of people in Kolkata," he observed.

Chennai would be the Indian outfit's headquarters while the New Delhi subsidiary would generate the bulk of the total Indian business.

In Chennai and New Delhi, the major items to be handled by Cargoplan International India would be garments, while Mumbai would handle various other items.

Freight Links International, according to its Chairman, proposed to spend an estimated $1 million on the Indian operation in the first year.

"The bulk of the money will be spent on infrastructure, i.e. the introduction of modern technology complete with online facilities and human resources development," he said, adding, "right kind of people can do wonders".

Cargoplan International India would provide a wide range of services relating to freight forwarding and logistics related services and, to start with, outsource many of the services such as trucking, warehousing and distribution.

In reply to a question, Mr Kadawatharatchie made it clear that he was open to financial tie-ups with Indian businessmen for the Indian business but management control would continue to be in the hands of the Sri Lankan company.

Freight Links International, which has an annual turnover of $25 million, has offices in Dubai, Maldives, Russia and Bangladesh.

"In Sri Lanka, our company's growth far exceeded the growth of the national economy for several years and, therefore, virtually reached saturation point while the Indian market is not only very big but also growing at a high rate, so much so that the country is set to emerge as a major economic power," he added.

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