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| Sunday, 13 February 2005 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Pottery his childhood love Having wanted to start something on his own he pondered that it should be 100 percent national. His mind raced, his heart skipped a beat what more than pottery his childhood love, his passion. He made up his mind to venture into the pottery business.
He was born in Tangalle as the eldest to a family of three children. His father had a Rice mill in Ampara while his mother kept house. He had a penchant for pottery from his early childhood and whenever he had some free time he used to cycle to the pottery village amidst protests from his elders. Nalantha began his schooling at Dharmasoka Vidyalaya, Ambalangoda from where he moved to Nalanda Vidyalaya for his Ordinary Level. Under the new syllabus all students had to select two pre vocational subjects which had to include one modern subject and one traditional subject.
"I selected Motor mechanics from modern subjects and my choice for traditional subjects was Pottery." Since we did not have a teacher for pottery at Ananda and Nalanda Mr Weerasekera from Kelaniya came twice a week and taught students of both schools. He spent his free time at the Waragoda Pottery Centre to learn the finer points of pottery making. Nalantha obtained a Distinction in Pottery at the O/L examination. He sat for his A/L exam at Royal College and joined Lever Brothers as a Marketing Representative under Tikiri Kobbekaduwa. " Though I was selling fragrant soaps in the central province I used to always inquire about pottery villages and used to visit them during my free time to aquire knowledge about pottery." After some time he was promoted and sent to Ampara but since his father did not want to send him he resigned and started to import and sell office automation paper which he did for ten years. "I wanted to start a business which was 100 percent national and my first and only choice was pottery as I knew the business and was also skilled and had the contacts. Pottery was a fashion but since it did not have a steady market the potters were reluctant to take to it. I changed it., now I pay cash and buy the goods at their doorstep but I am very quality conscious, he said. In January 2003 we opened our showroom Creative Pottery in Boralesgamuwa investing a small capital and bringing down two lorry loads of clay items from Tangalle. At the beginning we could not afford to pay a staff and therefore even the loading and unloading of the items was done by my wife and self while my wife's mother looked after the showroom when we went to purchase the items. It was strenuous at the beginning because we had to run the shop which was open from 9am to 9pm throughout the year and do the purchasing as well as catering to the demand of our clients without any help. It needed a lot of dedication and hard work but determination and the encouragement from the clients kept us on our feet, Nalantha said. Now we also have a showroom in Seeduwa as well as a factory in Pannala which turns out clay items. In addition we also deal with about 45 villages that supply clay items to us on cash basis. At present they export pottery items to Cyprus, Maldives, New Zealand, Dubai and Australia while they also provide all the pottery requirements of the Colombo hotels including the buffet sets. Former Assistant Director EDB Lalitha Kolombage, Former chairperson of National Design Centre Swarna Obeysekera, Harpo Gunaratna of Crescat Boulevard and Pradeep Wijenaike have always helped Nalantha and Sisitha Wijetunge. Among their future plans are opening a showroom in Colombo and expanding their business to have all pottery needs under one roof. SG |
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| Produced by Lake House |
Nalantha Wijetunge discussed with his wife Sisitha and there was no
looking back since then.
