Financial Times

World famous Raleigh bicycles made in Lanka
By Quintus Perera
While many people in Sri Lanka use shoes made by DSI, there are dozens of children in the UK who ride the world famous Raleigh bicycles produced by a DSI subsidiary with a factory at Kelaniya.

Samson Rubber Industries Ltd (SRI), part of the DSI group of companies, got the opportunity of exporting bicycles to the UK just by chance because of the very high quality standards of its tyres and tubes plus delivering export orders on time.

SRI exports bicycles to the renowned bicycle makers Raleigh UK Ltd and these are sold under the Raleigh brand name. Ranatunga Rajapakse, Chairman/Managing Director, SRI said that in 2000 he travelled to England and met the Director Purchasing, Raleigh UK Ltd to finalize the deal to export their bicycles. He said SRI is the top bicycle exporter in Sri Lanka. The company is now aiming to create an international name for DSI tyres and DSI bicycles.

The Raleigh bicycle, in the late 1960s, was a popular product here due to its high quality, endurance and durability. With the advent of the closed economy in 1970 and imports being virtually halted, these bicycles vanished from the market.

The DSI group consists 19 companies involved in diverse fields like the manufacture of ready-made garments, shoes, jams and cordials and bottled water. DSI has manufactured a range of rubber tyres and tubes for various types of vehicles especially bicycles since 1983.

While SRI's Mahara factory produces rubber tyres and tubes, a separate DSI subsidiary -Vechenson (Pvt) Ltd at Gampaha (a venture between investors from Taiwan, Italy and Sri Lanka) has been manufacturing tyres and tubes exclusively for exports.

Another subsidiary, Samson Rubber Products Ltd (SRP) manufactures EVA (Ethylin Vinyl Acetate) tyres, a lightweight synthetic rubber for export. They were exported to Lew-way UK Ltd. The UK firm was satisfied with the quality standards of the tyre and on-time export delivery schedules and it suggested (at that time) that DSI supply a complete bicycle to be marketed in England.

It was in 1999 that the group started turning out bicycles in a very small way. Ranjith Samaraweera, Senior Assistant Export Manager, said they were turning out bicycles first at the Minuwangoda factory (now at Kelaniya). When the company received the UK export order, a modern factory was put up in Kelaniya.

When Lew-way went bankrupt, SRI's UK agent was able to convince Raleigh UK Ltd of the high quality of the Sri Lankan product and secure an order. Samaraweera said that SRI's first order for Raleigh was 4,000 bicycles in August 2000. Since then exports have steadily progressed to10,000 bicycles in 2001, 35,000 in 2002, 121,000 last year and 73,000 in the first half of 2004. The target this year is 165,000. P A P Dayarathna, Sales Manager who has been with DSI for the last 20 years, said the large Kelaniya bicycle assembly line - the first in Sri Lanka - and the entire layout of the factory is according to the requirements of the foreign buyer.

While the few companies that assemble bicycles in Sri Lanka import all the parts, the DSI group not only manufactures its own tyres and tubes but also makes as many parts as possible like the entire plastic rim of smaller bicycles, mud-guards, seats and many other plastic and rubber components.

The Kelaniya factory produces small bicycles for export, and small and large sized-ones for the local market. Dayarathna said that they are carrying out promotional campaigns to popularize leisure riding in Sri Lanka and rather than getting involved in the manufacture of conventional type of bicycles, they were exploiting this niche market.

The maintenance of high standards by the company in the manufacture of tyres and tubes for bicycles, motorcycles, lawn and garden vehicles and agricultural vehicles while incorporating the finest design features of safety, durability and aesthetics, has won it patents for "No Flat" and "No Puncture" tyres.

SRI, while currently in discussions to export bicycles to Holland while looking at other export markets, says its worried about the import of cheaper varieties of bicycles, which would hamper the steady growth of locally-made bicycles. SRI has around 10 percent market share in the local bicycle market.

Its tyres and tubes are exported to more than 30 countries in the world including the United Kingdom, United States, Italy, Canada, Malawi, Japan, Tanzania and Pakistan.

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