India, China, Maldives in George Steuart’s sights

When the grandfather’s clock in the boardroom of Sri Lanka’s oldest company, George Steuart and Co, chimed at 11 am amidst the rubble and injured employees minutes after the Central Bank bomb explosion on January 31, 1996, Somasundaram Skandakumar knew ‘time will not stand still, and the company will survive.’

Skandakumar, outgoing chairman of the company and a former Sri Lankan test cricketer, recalled these moments on March 31 at a press briefing where he passed the baton to his sucessor Jayantha Wimalagooneratne who then spoke of the challenges ahead including the setting up of a travel company in the Maldives and trade and investment with India and China.

Skandakumar retired after serving 34 years in the company, eight of which was as the chairman where he saw the group diversify into pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, manpower recruitment, insurance, freight forwarding, financial services and education, and also become Sri Lanka’s largest exporter of value-added tea. The outgoing chairman said the blast at the Central Bank headquarters just across the road from ‘Steuart’ House, and the nationalisation of estates were two events that shook him but saw the company recover from these tought times.

Wimalagooneratne said that the company recently set up a Steuart Centre in Galle and aimed to establish many similar centres in other parts of the country, selling the range of Steuart products.

He said with the establishment of George Steuarts Philippines Inc. in the Philippines, more than a decade ago, the group has became an international company and its focus now is to make it a ‘truly multinational one.’

Wimalagooneratne, who has been associated with the Group for 30 years since 1978, is the 21st chairman of the company. The new Board of Directors includes Group Deputy Chairman Kandiah Neelakandan, the well-known lawyer, and Group Joint Managing Directors Dubsy Kanagaratnam and Duleep Daluwatte.