Fire that engulfed an export warehouse belonging to Egyptian sanitary ware and ceramics maker Lecico last week caused damage worth LE 70 million ($12.3 million), the firm said in a statement on Monday. A significant portion of exports was destroyed along with the warehouse, it added. Higher sanitary ware volumes were the main driver behind a 25 percent increase in the firm's first-quarter net profit, Lecico said last month. The fire destroyed 402,121 pieces of sanitary ware ready for export, which represented around 53 percent of Lecico's export stock and 28 percent of total sanitary ware. The firm said it expected to rebuild the warehouse by the end of the first quarter of 2011 and to have enough storage before the start of winter this year. "The direct financial consequences of lost inventory and buildings will not be important because we have adequate insurance and more than enough balance sheet strength," Gilbert Gargour, Lecico Egypt chairman and chief executive officer, said in the statement. The company said the cause of the fire was not known and the authorities had begun an investigation.
