On the way to make his fortune from coir

by Surekha GALABODA

Mallawathanthrige Sunil Patrick Perera has been engaged in many fields but today he is the proud owner of Supipi Coir Industry. He is ambitious and wants to develop his business further.

"Earlier I was involved in the prawn business but since we can't control the prices, the profit margins were less and also the costs increased unnecessarily during the period 1992-1993. Therefore I gave up the business but I bought a six acre land with the savings and today I have my coir business here.

Opportunity

"I saw an opportunity in the coir industry while being engaged in the prawn industry. One of my friends Anthony Paula wanted me to get involved in the twine industry. Wennappuwa was thriving in this business.

"Though we both liked it we didn't have the necessary funds."

Funds

During this time Perera was informed that the SME Bank was giving loans. The bank wanted Perera to set up the buildings, but alas the request was turned down. Perera was in real trouble; therefore he went and met the officials of the Industrial Development Board who said that one million rupees can be released but security was needed to get the loan from Lankaputhra Development Bank (LDB).

Loan

"The loan from LDB was a god send as I got the cash in my hand to start the business otherwise I would have been rolling in debt. The project report prepared by Jude Fernando helped a lot and I am so grateful to him and the LDB for helping me.

"Now we are engaged in the coir as well as the twine industry and produce about 100 kg of twine, 240-250 kg of coir or 300 kg of mattress fibre in a day. "On average to wet the coconut husks in a water pond it takes 45 days but since we couldn't spend that time we built a crusher by spending Rs. 225,000. This crusher has helped us to reduce the time duration by 40 days" said Perera.

Hindrance

"The only hindrance is that we took money on high interest to build the crusher and we are now paying it back and that is limiting our profits.

Capacity

"Though I have six twine manufacturing machines they don't work at full capacity as the capacity of the Sliver machine is not adequate at the moment."

Staff

Perera has provided employment to about five persons and plans are under way to increase employment in the future with the growth of the business.

Future plans

"I like to be a direct exporter of twine," said Perera.

Family

A father of two boys and one girl his wife too was involved in making handicraft using coconut leaves but now she has given it up to support her husband.