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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