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By Shirajiv Sirimane

Walker Sons & Co. Ltd which was established by a Scottish national in Ceylon nearly 150 years ago has today expanded to the extent of even buying its parent company in England. The birth of the company originated at Trincomalee Street, Kandy in 1854 when a young Scotsman John Walker set up a blacksmith's shop manufacturing machinery for the rapidly developing coffee industry.

The Scottish entrepreneur was a close follower of the political and economic development of the country and when coffee plantations were on the way out due to a disease giving way to tea, rubber and coconut plantations he too diversified his business to cater to the growing demand.

Soon he found that there was a growing business potential in Colombo specially in the Port and acquired a two-and-a-half acre property close to Temple Trees and shifted his headquarters to Colombo. This move paid rich dividends as business grew at a hectic pace and 1891 Walker Sons & Co. Ltd. was converted to a limited liability company and was registered in the London Stock exchange.

This registration was effective until 1980 when the companies were privatised by the then SLFP government.

The engineering excellence of the company was well accepted and almost all the major construction work at the Colombo Port was awarded to them. In addition a motor division was set up and in 1902 the company imported the first automobile to the then Ceylon. Twenty brand new Austin AE 8 model cars were imported and were sold at Rs. 4,000 each and most of the buyers were planters and top company executives.

Another first pioneered by the company was the installation of the first lift in Ceylon. This was an 'OTIS' passenger lift put up at Galle Face Hotel in 1902. Sixty-five years later Walkers also installed Sri Lanka's first touch button system passenger lift at the Hotel Intercontinental.

Today air-conditioning technology has advanced and simplified so fast that a unit could be even taken by hand and installed at a house or office by a single person. However when air-conditioning was first introduced to Ceylon in 1911 the unit itself was taken on a container since it was so complex and several labourers and technicians were involved in installing it. This was for a 10-room office in a company in Colombo, which has now folded up.

The showpiece of Colombo architecture, the old parliament complex was built by Walker Sons & Co. Ltd. In addition the company also built Ceylon's first cement factory in Kankesanturai in 1936.

Another significant landmark building, Ceylinco Head Office at Janadhipathi Mawatha which was the tallest building in Sri Lanka until the 1990s with 14 floors were built by Walkers.

Due to the policy of privatising foreign companions in the 1970's Walkers was sold to the Tata Company of India, which ran it for almost a decade. Later this company was bought by Kapila Heavy Equipment for Rs. 11 million in 1990. The local company was involved in construction work with the Mahaweli Development Project and when they acquired Walkers which was under the Indians they also bought the parent company in UK which was almost folding up.

However with the Sri Lanka company taking over Walkers the stock market listing in UK was removed. Walkers with the new Sri Lankan management concentrated more on the construction industry and Piling became their core business. The automobile section gave way and some of the surrounding land too were sold while the fuel filling station was taken over by the government.

"With the free economy being introduced in 1977 there was a flood of cheap Japanese cars to the local market and we found it difficult to compete with them. This prompted us to close the automobile department," said the Executive Director Walker & Sons & Co. Ltd, H. Gamini Fonseka.

He said that the company has now signed an agreement with a leading Singaporean Piling Company Econ to introduce the latest piling technology to Sri Lanka. "We have a turnover of Rs. 100 million per annum from piling and with this tie up we are aiming to double this figure."

"We are the pioneers in piled foundation engineering in Sri Lanka and have the technical know-how to handle the toughest piling jobs. The company is hoping to go in for other specialised piling and foundation systems such as Diaphragm walls, Secant Piling, Touching, Friction and Sheet Piles."

"To-date we have successfully completed over a hundred prestigious piling projects including pile foundations for Ceylinco Seylan Towers, Bank of Ceylon, Merchant Bank, Commercial Bank and the Baseline Road Improvement Project 'fly-over' at the Dematagoda Railway crossing."

Fonseka, a former Charted Accountant at Ernest and Young later rose to be a partner of the company for 20 years said that last year was not a good year for them specially with the negative growth of the economy.

"But we still were involved in major fisheries harbour construction projects in Hikkaduwa and Panadura. This year will be a very good year for us."

Today Walkers has automated their company which has enabled them to reduce their staff to 165 from around 1,000.

The Walkers marketing division promotes sales of a wide range of engineering related items such as machinery appliances, tools and estate suppliers. Their engineering and refrigeration, mechanical and Electrical, plantation engineering divisions and their showrooms are at Colombo, Ratnapura, Bandarawla, Galle, Ambalantota, Kandy, Sapugaskanda (Central workshop) and Talawakele.

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Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
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