Jagdish Hathiramani looks back at the amazing journey of this 175-year-old company
While many in the corporate sphere are aware of the standing of the George Steuarts Group, it only takes walking through the hallowed halls of the company’s headquarters, finished in the 1960’s at Janadhipathi Mawatha, to truly appreciate the magnitude of history and tradition in which Sri Lanka's oldest business house is steeped.
Jayantha Wimalagooneratne |
From the wall of portraits on the 8th floor boardroom stretching all the way back to founder James Steuart in 1835, which this reporter learns is limited to featuring only deceased chairmen and board members, to the originals of Steuart's personal journals outlining his voyages and dealings, to the famed Grinlinton chair, previously used by H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester, which was gifted to then Chairman Sir Thomas Villiers as part of the company's centenary celebrations in 1935, as well as even a number of Steuart collection antiques including a grandfather clock and furniture; staff at today's George Steuarts Group work in offices peppered with reminders of a bygone era, rich in history and testaments to Steuart's legacy.
Just turned 175 years old, this approximately Rs. 12 billion turnover group today boasts a widely diversified portfolio including business concerns across pharmaceuticals, tea, telecommunications, properties, financial, insurance, recruitment, professional education, freight forwarding and even tours and airline representation, with its general sales agencies for Delta and Philippines Air; all offered by way of a current staff strength of 430 in total. Interestingly too, the company has come a long way from its beginnings as the country's first merchant bankers, followed by its later transition into an agency house ultimately responsible for making then Ceylon a large scale producer of coffee; its coffee plantations replaced by tea after the coffee blight of the 1870’s.
However, according to group chairman Jayantha Wimalagooneratne, himself a 33-year veteran of the company, who was speaking exclusively to the Business Times; what has not changed are the foundations on which the business has been built, such as a policy of hiring only the right people for the job stemming from the time of James Steuart.
This coupled by values that urge the care of staff and their families throughout their lives remains as important today as the company's the bottom line, and has led to sometimes as many as four generations of a single family having worked at the company.
These values can be directly traced back to James Steuart, according to Mr. Wimalagooneratne, who became unpopular amongst his peers for openly advocating that one fifth of the colony’s resources should be put towards educating, feeding, clothing and sheltering all as well as more inclusive electoral reforms, both measures promoting wider equality of all races including the indigenous population and the Indian Tamils.
Today, on the verge of becoming a true multinational company, due to an existing presence in the Philippines, which sells tea products in supermarkets and a number of star class hotels in Manila and plans to extend its offerings to reputed airlines in the near future, as well as a planned Chennai-based Joint Venture with India's Carewell Pharma in the offing; the group, according to Mr. Wimalagooneratne, has experienced many ups and downs. One of these is the nationalisation of tea plantations in the 1970s, which led to the take-over of 90% of the group's holdings, the largest acreage of tea plantations at the time, and it led to the resulting entry by the group into successful stints in textiles, automotive spare parts, gem exports, telecommunications and eventually jewellery manufacturing, as well as a number of startups that failed due to panicking and lack of expertise.
However, it was the 1996 Central Bank blast that was one of the most trying for the group to date as, due to its headquarters being situated opposite the Central Bank, many of its employees were injured and even blinded in the blast, four even died, with the company's offices being gutted and only the building's shell remaining.
This led to many of the group's core businesses having to move to temporary facilities in city hotels such as the Galadari and Oberoi (now Cinnamon Grand Colombo) in a matter of days, with the then Chairman even working out of his own house for lack of space. This was followed by rapid renovation of the headquarters so that, within four short months and before any other adjoining offices could open, the George Steuarts Group was back in business.
This feat was a testament to the loyalty of the group's employees, according to Mr. Wimalagooneratne; but, in many unknown ways, this terrorist act harmed the group’s future since a number of international agencies pulled out from the country, resulting in a lot of lost opportunity.
For a group that has experienced the horrors of terrorism, 2008's global financial crisis has not been a major stumbling block; mainly due to its diversified portfolio and strong foundations. While dropping international tea exports, Middle East recruitment numbers and travellers have led to losses by core businesses, this has been balanced by its pharmaceuticals business doing well.
Today, things are on an upswing once again with tea export orders regularising once again and travel and tourism taking off, especially locally. Meanwhile, the future of the group remains positive, according to Mr. Wimalagooneratne, with a renewed focus on diversification, including overseas and east coast investments in the works as well as planned projects in agriculture and eco-tourism.
The group's partnership with Carewell Pharma in Chennai will also eventually allow it to supply drugs to the Philippines, an added line of future revenue. However, some of these projects are already hitting stumbling blocks, such as securing land for agriculture, and so the atmosphere for investment in the country has to be improved, according to Mr. Wimalagooneratne. What does he suggest? Open up the import of tea to Sri Lanka so the country can become a blending hub and focus on creating brands and giving buyers/consumers what they want rather than selling commodities. Also, encourage Sri Lankan businesses to set up mini manufacturing plants like in India as this was the real engine to growth. |
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