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| Sunday, 14 March 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Marks 25 years in business : Tri Star geared to meet new challenges Twenty-five years is a young and vibrant age in a person's life to give of his best. So it is with the country's largest factory owning apparel manufacturing combine of Tri Star Apparel Exports (Pte.) Ltd., which pioneered the location of garment factories in rural Sri Lanka. To be in business in a highly competitive field as garment manufacturer for a continuous period of twenty-five years operating 25 full-fledged factories and either major support services centres, managing workforce of 25,000 persons is by itself a stupendous endeavour. Looking back over the 25 years of the Groups's activities, Tri Star's founder and Chairman Kumar Dewapura said: "Our operations all along were not confined to business aspect only but also towards human considerations. I took great financial risks in this endeavour". Dewapura first started business in a modest scale by opening his first factory in Katubedda in 1979 with only ten machines and 15 employees-targeting his products exclusively to the foreign market and scored instant success. Soon, he expanded his business to include prestigious buyers like Marks and Spencer and set up three more factories in Ratmalana. Later, he expanded into the provinces under the 200-Garment Factories Programme launched by the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa. Dewapura first broached the idea of setting up garment factories in rural areas to late President Premadsa giving as an example the first such factory he opened in Dodangaslanda in 1988. He also gave the lead in opening the first few factories under the 200 Garment Factories Programme which was later emulated by other investors. Tri Star could well have built on only running the highly successful factories it operated in the suburbs of Colombo producing quality garments to world famous labels like Marks and Spencer, Victoria Secret, Gap. Grasshopper etc. But, Dewapura felt that he must do something for the people making use of the technical know-how and resources he had accumulated. The youth rebellion of late 1980s had just died down leaving in its wake large scale destruction to life and property. Said Dewapura: "Thousands of youths who rebelled were in custody. They had rebelled due to lack of employment opportunities. I thought why can't we train these people, who were mainly school drop-outs, in garment manufacturing skills. So, I took the risk and set up a factory on my own at Karandagolla in Dodangaslanda first to train the youth in skills. "Large numbers came for the interviews. Many girls were so poor that they were not wearing even slippers or were shabbily dressed. I took them on including many held in custody and trained them with the help of technical personnel I already had. Soon they were earning sufficient incomes to sustain their families and improve their standard of living. "Apart from the thousands I employ today, I am happy of the fact that several hundreds of others who were trained in skills in various disciplines by Tri Star are employed in other garment factories", asserts Tri Star chief. Tri Star was badly hit when textile quotas enjoyed by most of its factories in rural areas were reduced or withdrawn after the death of President Premadasa. Yet he managed to keep them all going for the sake of the employees from the profits earned by other factories doing non-quota orders for prestigious labels. However, as the pressure on maintaining them grew due to the high interest rates, market downturn due to the North-East conflict the company had to temporarily shut down ten of the 30 factories it operated throughout the country. However, now on its 25th year of operations, Tri Star and its Chairman is determined to start all over again its town-to-village concept by re-opening the closed factories. Already seven of the closed factories at Buttala, Badulla, Bandarawela, Welimada, Hasalaka, Ambalantota and Kamburupitiya have been reopened during the past few months following encouraging signs of the markets picking up following the peaceful environment in the country. What of the future? Beaming with confidence Dewapura has set Tri Star on course of restructuring and upgrading machinery and training skills of its workforce to meet modern day requirements to stay competitive. Coupled with this, he has launched an impressive marketing strategy by setting up branches in UK, Germany, USA and in African countries. "We are now geared and equipped to meet the stiff challenges ahead particularly after the abolition of the quota system in 2005. At the same time, we are determined to keep the town-to-village concept much alive by training more youth in skills. In addition to our 25 factories, we are operating 28 rural training centres to provide skilled personnel to the garment trade. More recently we opened two fully-fledged training centres at Hasalaka and Kandy to train the youth". |
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