Financial Times

Fighting against the odds
David - the gentle industrial giant from Ekala
By Quintus Perera
The man who single-handedly conducted a five-day industrial exhibition in 1993, covering the entire exhibition area of the BMICH when others pulled out, is now quietly producing all types of plant and machinery for many of Sri Lanka's biggest firms.

D. S. David who runs a moderate workshop called the Technical Services Centre (TSC) which borders on the Industrial Estate at Ekala, Ja-Ela manufactures a range of things like conveyors, agitators, mixers, sieving machines, chemical pumps, blenders, furnaces, deck ovens, rack ovens, rotary ovens, service carts, rice degraders, ball mills - match mixers, stainless steel structures, automated dryers for noodles and papadam manufacturing machines.

What is unique in David's venture is that the workshop can turn out any ageing imported machinery which is now obsolete and produce completely new innovations to suit the requirements of various industrialists. He now supplies machinery for industries like food, soap, cement, textiles, coconut, rubber, packaging, agro based, paint etc.

The entire high-tech industrial world of Sri Lanka is aware of this industrial machinery manufacturing genius and major industrialists who use various types of machinery in Sri Lanka are his clients. TSC is one of the leading engineering centres in Sri Lanka designing and manufacturing various types of automated plant and machinery for local industry. The plant and machinery thus required are designed to suit local conditions, considering the smooth function, high rate of production, maintenance and the supply of spare parts with high quality.

When David planned the first-ever industrial exhibition "Techno 93" more than 10 years ago, he invited 42 industrialists to participate while President Ranasinghe Premadasa was to inaugurate the exhibition. Four other ministers had agreed to declare open the exhibition each day.

When he sought the assistance of a trade organization, he was asked to hand over the entire sponsorship to them. He refused and decided to organize it himself against all odds. President Premadasa didn't attend the inauguration and except for one minister others (three ministers) declined to attend. All 42 invited industrialists didn't turn up. Yet David went ahead with his plans exhibiting 53 heavy machines that he had turned out, which stunned - at that time - the Sri Lankan industrial world. David from Homagama first obtained his Mechanical Engineering degree from the Katubedde University in 1965 and served the Ceylon Railway for 10 years. From 1980 he worked at Ceylon Tobacco Co, Sugar Corporation, Rhino Asbestos, and then as Chief Engineer at Baurs Ltd. In 1980, then Baurs Managing Director Thilo Hoffman helped David to set up his own workshop to manufacture machinery. He now holds an MBA from Rajarata University and a Masters degree in Economics from Colombo University and is awaiting his PhD in June.

By 1982 he was able to stand on his own feet and commenced manufacturing automated plant and machinery, first with small units and then moving into heavy machinery. Lever Bros (now Unilever) which was using his engineering services then gave him the contracts of turning out machinery for them which continues today. Another big David client is Ceat-Kelani Tyre manufacturers.

When Sri Lanka was plagued with various exchange restrictions and the exorbitant cost of importing new machinery, many industrialists backed down closing down their industries - unable to afford new machinery to replace the obsolete ones. At such a difficult time like this, David's services became somewhat invaluable for those struggling to keep their industries afloat for want of new machinery or replacements.

For instance if an imported machine costs Rs. 10 million, David could provide the machine at just one third of the imported cost in addition to reducing the waiting time plus the hassle of finding foreign exchange. Now David's TSC turns out machinery worth around three to four million rupees annually with many small scale industrialists seeking machinery requirements from him.

While his services to the industrial sector have been invaluable, he also had ambitious plans to share his experiences with the youth of this country. He planned to set up a Technical Training and Education Campus in 1994-95, and bought a 40 acre land in Alawwa with hopes to turn out least 75 to 100 diploma holders who could join the job market with some skills. But that was a bad time due to unrest in the country and there were also fears of forcible encroachment of the land. He thus abandoned plans and sold the land.

Now the TSC registers youth every three months and when there is an intake of around 20 the technical training course would start. So far the TSC has produced around three thousand male and female youth. He also plans to expand his workshop to handle more manufacturing but the restructure would cost around Rs. 2 billion.

He agrees that the machines produced by the TSC would not be the same standard of those produced in countries like the UK, Germany or USA but he assured that the quality and precision of his machines would definitely be amongst the best in South Asia. David has exported several machines from soap manufacturing machines to washing plants and bottle filling plants to the Maldives and Vietnam.

In addition to meeting the requirements of his regular clients, he has now begin on a large scale to produce packaging machinery which would fetch a ready market and also to export them. He is targeting exports to the Maldives, Vietnam, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria and some African countries. Not resting on his industrial brilliance, David also plans to author several books on engineering and economics to be sold in the international market.

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