Softlogic mulls 100% growth in five years

Completes 25 years this month:

Softlogic Holdings PLC which is celebrating 25 years of operations in Sri Lanka hopes to build its future on dynamism, continuing to look for opportunities which others may not foresee.

"This is the mantra for much of our past success," says Softlogic founder and Chairman Ashok Pathirage.

"We will also be focussing on profitability in the immediate future as a key component of the next phase of growth," Pathirage said.

Looking back on two and a half decades of meteoric growth, Pathirage credits "the group's rapid organic growth and aggressive acquisitions" as a significant contributor to its current position, singling out as game-changing examples its acquisitions of the Asiri Hospitals group and ODEL PLC.

With sales growing an impressive 46 percent from Rs 39 billion to Rs 57 billion in the last financial year alone, Pathirage says the Group is positioned to double in size in the next five years, "if everything goes to plan."

"We are on a sound platform to take the business to its next phase, which may be much easier than the first 25 years," he states. "This is because we are where we want to be, a position we have achieved as a result of our vision and our people. A lot of hard work has been done, but it's not just hard work, nor the brands alone, that matter: it's having the right people with the right frame of mind that makes Softlogic what it is. A certain degree of boldness is required, but that stems from the confidence we have in our people who are empowered to carry out the Group's business objectives and to take it to the next level."

Expansion within the chosen growth sectors will drive the Group's short and medium term growth, Pathirage forecasts, disclosing that the Group is not looking at venturing into new sectors at this stage. "We believe there is enough potential within the sectors we are in, to achieve the growth we seek, and to generate robust shareholder value," he adds.

The Healthcare and Retail sectors, as well as Financial Services look "very exciting" in the roadmap for the Group's immediate future, Pathirage avers. The Group is also positioned to be a key player in the Leisure sector with the opening of its second international hotel property, Mövenpick later this year, but will "pick and choose" its investments, given the capital-intensive nature of the sector, he said.

Optimism about Sri Lanka's future fuels the group. "When we started operations, there was a war on. For about 20 years, we lived with that war and grew despite its impact on business. Some of our acquisitions based on our strategy of taking leadership positions in our chosen sectors may have surprised our peers. We now see those strategic decisions reaping much fruit," Pathirage said.

"Sri Lanka is now moving towards a per capita income of US$ 7,000 by 2020, and Softlogic is perfectly positioned to support an economy of that size. We are building the country's biggest mall, The ODEL Mall, and we have many of the top global brands in our portfolio.

"We have been a catalyst in the growing popularity of designer brands in the local market and we can see the retail sector emulating Singapore and Dubai. We want to be in that space.

"Further,the construction of the 150 bed Asiri Hospital in Kandy has begun and is slated for opening in 2018. It will contain state-of-the-art facilities on par with its other hospitals in Colombo," he said.

Even though its website proclaims the fact, few people now connect the Rs. 57 billion Group with the 12-employee software development company of the same name that launched operations with a capital of Rs 1 million in July 1991.

Acknowledged today for its visionary boldness, eye for opportunity and appetite for calculated risk, the Softlogic Group has grown into a conglomerate that has firmly entrenched positions in six growing sectors of the domestic economy, and has become the dominant force in Healthcare and Retail. The Group also holds leading positions in ICT, Financial Services, Automobiles and Leisure.

Ranked second among Sri Lanka's most valuable conglomerate brands last year, the Softlogic Group provides employment to over 9,000 people in Sri Lanka and Australia and has representations and strategic alliances with reputed global institutions and large multinational corporations.

The Softlogic Group portfolio comprises an extensive range of global brands.