Financial Times

DSI group plans overseas units
By Quintus Perera
The DSI group, one of the main drivers of the rubber products' industry in Sri Lanka, is planning to set up factories in Asia and parts of Africa as it expands its horizon from a home-spun manufacturing unit.

One of the few family-owned groups in Sri Lanka to have succeeded against international competition, DSI is currently discussing with some likely partners to set up manufacturing units in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar and a few African countries.

Among other well-known family-owned groups that have succeeded here and abroad are the Maliban, Munchee and Anton brands. Ranatunga Rajapakse, Managing Director, Samson Reclaim Rubbers Ltd (SRRL), told The Sunday Times FT that Sri Lanka is slowly moving from 'under-developed' to 'developing' status and "we are pragmatically looking forward to expand into 'under-developed' countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, and some African states."

The DSI group produces a range of products including shoes, different types of tyres, bicycles including the famous Raleigh brand, garments and food products among others. The group's success, according to Rajapakse, is based on a unique father-son concept that is practiced in the entire group. Workers in the group own 10 percent of its shares.

Rajapakse said the secret of managing and at the same time maintaining international standards of all its products of the massive DSI conglomerate comes from his father D Samson Rajapakse's vision of a father-son relationship being maintained in the case of the employer and employee.

"No father intentionally hurts his son and no son intentionally hurts his father. This is the precise concept we are adopting within the whole group. A concept that brought excellent results since 1936. We look after the workers … they look after us and safeguard and uphold our interests. It is a wonderful process for any one to emulate."

SRRL was the first ever used tyre-reclaiming project in Sri Lanka and still is the only company involved in this work. It has been given "Pioneer Industry" status by the Ministry of Finance.

SRRL factory is located in a seven-acre land at Bogahagoda, Galle and in 1996 it was expanded and modernized with an additional investment of Rs 30 million provided by a Taiwan company. Dr .L. P Mendis, a rubber researcher who worked at the CISIR (now Industrial Technology Institute) and now is SRRL director in charge of the factory, said SRRL has been able to obtain only 10 percent of the annual used tyres of a total quantity of 1.1 million. The balance is dumped in landfills and used for other purposes.

Dr Mendis said they have asked several government departments to send their used tyres to the company and is planning awareness campaigns on this issue among the public. SRRL is also proposing to formulate a new collection network so that more and more people would be encouraged to supply them with old tyres.

The annual production of rubber from old tyres by SRRL stands at 5,000 tonnes with 80 percent of this quantity sold to various rubber industrialists often to turn out products for export while the balance 20 percent is exported as raw material by SRRL.

Dr Mendis said there is a tremendous export market for reclaimed rubber if more old tyres were available for re-use. SRRL also manufactures 'play tiles' out of the reclaimed rubber, a kind of safe garden tiles, which is now becoming popular in children's parks. They are also increasingly used for landscaping.

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