Financial Times

Public servant turned entrepreneur
Producing novel coloured sand-coated wedding gifts
This is a new series on public sector employees and professionals who have either retired or quit their jobs to turn to entrepreneurship and become successful business persons. We welcome contributions to this column. Write to the Business Editor on email: ft@sundaytimes.wnl.lk or call 2304170.

By Quintus Perera
Love is symbolized in many ways and one such way is the exchange of gifts and mementos to ensure the ever-lasting bondage of love and friendship. Wedding gifts too are a way of expressing one’s greeting and friendship to a new couple. That is the market that Ran Ruwan focuses on, the speciality store in Colombo that produces fabulous sand sprayed-coloured ornaments.
This unique and innovative craft is a combination of human skills and colours of natural mineral sands and semi-precious stones of Sri Lanka.

Though the kind of sand that is used for this spraying process is available everywhere, the sand for Ran Ruwan is collected mainly from the Ratnapura area. The process entails the sand being separated into different colours and then these coloured sands are sprayed in a suitable combination onto glass and other objects to convert them into beautiful lamps and other ornaments.
When these objects are illuminated they give a panoramic outlook.

The creator of these beautiful mementos and gifts is Ranjith L Dias who runs a factory at Arangala, Hokandara where the sand-crafted nature loving decorative lamps, lamp shades and natural costume jewellery have been produced since 1994. These gift items are sold at two shops owned by him at Majestic City and at Liberty Plaza Shopping Complex.

Dias is basically a geologist who has served three government institutions -the Geological Survey Department, Export Development Board (EDB) and the Mahaweli.

Authority and altogether has worked in the public sector for 21 years. While serving the Geological Survey Department, he got an opportunity to study about the mineral resources in the country, their unique properties, the technology for processing, etc. His experience at the EDB gave him the insight of how to develop a market for any type of resource.

"The main local purchases are from those buying these sand coloured ornaments to be presented as wedding gifts. It has become a symbol of lasting friendship.

The other reason is that these ornaments and lamps are customized items where the individual ideas of the giver reflects in a gift which everybody likes as it is something novel and different," he said.

Dias’ factory employs 16 persons with give sub-contracts for another 34 persons while the glass and metal work is also done by sub-contractors. He said very soon they hope to appoint a dealer in Paris to market their products and all preliminary work in this connection has been completed. With the introduction of the shop in France, the production also would be increased simultaneously, resulting in an increase in employment and doubling the staff.
In addition to local sales, the company also exports their products to the Far East, Middle East and most European countries.

Dias said, "We have been getting a stream of inquiries from countries like Canada, Japan and Germany. In some of these areas negotiations are in progress and by the end of the year if all goes well we would be able to open another one or two shops in thee countries".

He said that has a good understanding of the local market and export potential for the country's unexploited local mineral resources.

For the 11 years that he worked at the Mahaweli Authority, he wanted to promote some industries in the Mahaweli area but was able to understand the entrepreneurial constraints behind these industries both in marketing and production systems.

"Also instead of just promoting available resources, I thought I must go for something new using my skills as well as the knowledge I have gathered. At the same time I have realized in the government service there is no chance to do one’s own research and experiment in an unlimited way.

Therefore I thought I should resign and form this industry as a research oriented project and just to try my own ideas in a very new market. But it proved highly successful and then in five years I reached the export market.”
In the case of investment funds, Dias had to invest basically in marketing because he believed that he was unable to develop good sales points in the right places, he wouldn’t be able to develop the industry to today's high sales mark and quality.

“It was always the value addition with our skills that kept us in business."
How the sand is processed and turned into the final product is a secret. The sand is separated into different colours. Like gems, sand too could be separated into a multitude of colours using highly skilled techniques.
Dias said he was fortuate that four years back the Presidential Secretariat recognized his unique contribution to the mineral sector and granted him an interest free loan for this innovation and its further development. He has now repaid the entire loan.

Ran Ruwan has also tested another lucrative market in making statues using the same technique of spraying appropriate colour sand to give a dazzling look to these statues. Currently they are making Buddhist statues which have a ready market for locals and foreigners.

The average cost of a sand sprayed coloured lamp is around Rs 1,000, "but it is the uniqueness and novelty of the gift that is invaluable to the receiver". Unlike others he is not exporting minerals. But he said, "I am exporting my skills, which nobody can rob or abuse and I could make each product to be different from one another.”

Back to Business