More than just a pipe dream

Egger (centre) at the new KE Kelit factory which was opened by Deputy Rural and Regional Development Minister Sivarasa Rasiah (beside him).

KE KELIT Kunststoffwerk GmbH, an innovative pipe-manufacturing company from Linz, Austria, is opening its new factory in Selangor.

For 70 years, the company has been developing, manufacturing, installing and selling plastic pipe systems, pipe insulation, pre-insulated pipes and metal pipe systems.

The company is a private enterprise of the Egger family in Linz, with the current CEO Karl Egger the third generation at the helm.

It started out as an installation company (KE Plumbing), and today is part of the KE Kelit Group.

The company has been active in South-East Asia for more than 23 years, where it has a vast number of reference projects, ranging from the Sands Casino in Singapore to the Sheraton in Saigon and the Oval Condominium in Kuala Lumpur.

A few years ago, KE Kelit entered the Pacific region, setting up offices in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand.

In Malaysia, KE Kelit (M) Sdn Bhd was established in April 1995.

In 1999, KE Kelit set up its trading office with warehouse facilities in TTDI Jaya in Shah Alam with five employees.

Over the years, KE Kelit has worked with many distributors and agents to establish its brand awareness and the Kelen PPR piping system in the market.

Since then, KE Kelit has grown rapidly and expanded its business to other markets in the region, among them Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

Soon after, KE Kelit incorporated KE Kelit Manufacturing (M) Sdn Bhd in July 2003 in Section 16 Shah Alam and the following year, KE Kelit started its production of Kelen and Ketrix pipes.

In 2008, due to the increase in demand for its products, KE Kelit expanded its production capacity by setting up another extruder line. A bigger factory was required so KE Kelit relocated to its second factory in Section 23 Shah Alam.

In 2016, KE Kelit also started producing PPR fittings in its Malaysian facilities.

This year, KE Kelit has relocated to Subang Jaya in Selangor,

due to the further increase in demand for its products around the Asian region and also to serve regional customers with better logistic support.

In Europe, with the recent

addition of the Climate Systems Division to its operations in Austria and Germany, KE Kelit has been making waves for innovative surface heating and cooling systems that reduce energy consumption and increase comfort levels in European homes and offices.

Other product ranges manufactured and supplied by KE Kelit include the Kelox PROtec push-fit plumbing system for multilayer pipes, the Ketrix chilled water system and the Steelfix and Copperfix metal press systems for commercial and industrial plumbing/heating/sprinkler systems.