Doing business in India
Market proper Lankan products
By Quintus Perera
It is not an easy task for Sri Lankan manufacturers to survive and expand in export markets where most of these countries are well equipped with highly sophisticated modern technology and advanced management skills.

Yet K.I.K. Engineering Co (Pvt) Ltd, according to its Chairman/Managing Director Lalith Kahatapitiya, has met these daunting challenges and captured a wide export market by manufacturing low voltage electrical switchgear.

He is one local entrepreneurial genius who has dazzled in the international business arena and is proud to be a Sri Lankan. “The secret of my success is maintenance of high quality standards consistently, on-time delivery and round the clock after sales service,” he told The Sunday Times FT in an interview.
What he started from scratch in 1994 virtually toiling alone in a small factory put up at IDH, Angoda supplying just a few items to the local market, has today grown into a large factory in the Katunayake Export Processing Zone exporting to countries like India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Vietnam, Rwanda, Singapore, Myanmar and Iran. His major market is India with a branch of K I K Engineering being set up in D & E TASS Industrial Estate, Ambattur, Chennai. The total investment today stands at around Rs 200 million.

K I K Engineering is a fully Sri Lankan owned BOI firm at Katunayake with 150 technicians, out of which 10 are qualified engineers fabricating the electrical switchgear.

K I K Industries (Pvt) Ltd is at Mount Lavinia with around 50 technicians manufacturing these items for the local market. For its excellent workmanship, maintenance of high quality and meeting with other local standards, KIK has been winning various awards throughout its existence and last week it swept the board winning the most prestigious Entrepreneur of the year for 2004 Award conducted by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Sri Lanka.

Kahatapitiya, a Chartered Engineer by profession, began his career in various engineering fields. He didn’t have any job satisfaction, was unable to use his talents fully and had to follow orders and guidelines of others. “What I wanted was an environment for the people to work freely using their talents and skills without telling them what they should do. What is important is to understand and gauge the competence and capacity and within that framework allow the person to work freely, which gives him job satisfaction and the organization in which he works would be enormously benefited,” he said.

He said that the other most important factor for him to achieve success has been that he was able to look beyond Sri Lanka.

“Due to various problems in the country in 1996 I was unable to get orders locally. My main worry and the challenges were as to how to keep my talented staff and find orders to keep the factory running. Then I looked beyond and approached the export market and set up my factory in the Katunayake BOI Zone,” he added.

In India some of KIK’s leading customers are Tata, Hyundai, Delhi Metro Railway Corporation, Nokia India and International Electro-Technical Commission.

Some of the top Sri Lankan customers are the Water Board, Ceylon Tobacco Co, Crescat Boulevard Apartment and Shopping Mall, Unilever and Kaluganga Hydro Power Station.

Though KIK maintains highest quality standards and delivers its exports sharp on time, the technicians are not rushed and pushed around, working a regular 8 am to 5 pm shift. Overtime or extra work comes in only if there is an urgent shipment.

KIK fabricates the switch gear on precise specifications for various products and the switchgear panels of one client would not be identical to another. Each one would be a separate design.

Export orders are increasing with KIK hoping to export to more countries and thus plans are underway to expand facilities with construction of another factory on another one acre of land just by the side of the present factory in Katunayake.

Office area will also be expanded at the same time. Kahatapitiya said that he is still not satisfied with the present level of export orders since there is more potential for export. He said once the new factory is constructed he would try to add new areas of production into electronic devices, etc.

In addition to the several awards KIK has won it also has acquired the ISO/9001 – 2000 and is strictly adhering to pertinent international standards on the manufacture of electrical switch gear. The Indian office in Chennai occupying a floor area of around 7,000 sq ft handles the entire Indian operations.

He said that local industrialists would stagnate if they just look around for local markets as the greatest opportunity for them is at their doorstep – India.
When suggested that Indian entrepreneurs find it easier to do business in Sri Lanka because of flexible state regulations unlike in India where Sri Lankan businessmen have to struggle with cumbersome central and state government rules, Kahatapitiya said with the right products, there is no difficulty in establishing a market in India and contended that officials are very cooperative.

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