Mercantile Fortunes flooring division enjoys healthy profits

The flooring division of Mercantile Fortunes (Pvt) Ltd set up in 1996 enjoys healthy profits today due to the quality of the work and timely delivery.

Director of the Company Gerard Ondaatjie said that the division was started due to the high demand from clients.

Mercantile Fortunes was established to engage in the business of car trading. When the parent company Mercantile Investments Ltd (MIL) was building Royal Palms Beach Hotels Ltd we imported the timber for the floors from Malaysia while it was done in-house.

When the hotel was opened in 1996 everybody wanted to know who did the floors and from where they could get it done. Since nobody else in the country was engaged in wooden flooring we gave it a thought and got going and there has been no turning back since then Ondaatjie said. The timber is imported and due to the quality of the work and timely delivery we were called upon to do big projects and one of the first mega projects we undertook was re-doing the Central Bank after it was damaged by LTTE bomb blast.

Then business really picked up and now we have done some of the most beautiful luxury houses in Colombo as well as commercial buildings and hotels.

"I personally get involved in all aspects from purchasing of raw material to designing and take personal passion in what I do," he said.

Ondaatjie said we have researched into the techniques, machinery, finishing materials and this is key to our success.

He said that when a customer asks for wood flooring we are able to give the best application as we have done our home work well in advance. The process we use is world class while the finished materials are sourced from USA, Germany and Canada.

The range of wood we use has also expanded. We are the biggest importer of processed timber from Burma while we also import it from Brazil.

He said that orders to purchase timber are placed after we get the project from a client but we ensure that we deliver on time.

In the event we cannot deliver on time we won't undertake the project and we don't have any competitors, Ondaatjie said.

He said that the flooring division has about 60-75 staff including contractors who do an excellent job together with the Procuring Manager and Marketing Manager.

At present we are engaged in many multi national apartment projects which are being built. Outlining future plans he said that they are interested in doing a lot of big projects.

(SG)