Soar only exporter of power generators
BY NIMAL Perera, Wattala group correspondent
Roshan Gunathilake
|
ROSHAN Gunathilake Chairman, Managing Director of Soar Technology (Pvt)
Ltd. Welisara the only company in Sri Lanka which manufactures power
generators for the export market has become an award winning businessman
today.
"During the past nine years I have won so many awards including the
International Quality Crown award at the 17th International Quality
Crown convention held in London last week. I am very proud on it. This
is a dream award for not only for me but the whole country." Roshan
said.
Roshan (38), a young and enthusiastic Sri Lankan electronics engineer
has set himself the task of earning much foreign exchange to the country
by manufacturing power generators and exporting them to foreign
countries.
Roshan, an old boy of St. Benedict's College, Kotahena, improved his
inborn skills by watching his father who served as an airconditioning
engineer at Walker and Sons.
As a school boy he created an automatic tea making machine to brew
tea in seven minutes which won him the award of Junior Inventor of the
Year 1986. He was also acclaimed the most popular designer of the year
at a science exhibition.
Final inspection of a completed generator |
Soon after leaving school Roshan had the opportunity of joining the
National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERD) where he had
the privilege of meeting people in the calibre of top engineers, doctors
and best technical personnel.
His talents were spotted by then NERD Chairman Dr. A.N.S. Kulasinghe,
the engineering genius and offered him a scholarship to study further in
power generation, transmission and distribution. He also obtained a
diploma in engineering science from the Technical Institute Katunayake
specialising in electronics.
In 1993 he won the award for the most outstanding student from the
City and Guilds institution in UK.
Roshan started his own business in 1992 under the name of Soar
Technology which was incorporated as a limited liability company in
1996.
In the early stages he started manufacturing accessories for power
generators such as control panels, synchronising panels and auto voltage
regulators.
These accessories exported to several countries including Maldives
and U.K. Roshan said these items are made by several other countries but
have to be discarded when part turn faulty because no spare parts are
available.
Generators being made at the workshop |
He has therefore met this shortcoming by manufacturing all the spares
needed for the accessories to power generators and other items so that a
part can be replaced instead of having to discard the whole unit.
"Assembling or manufacturing these items in countries like the UK is
very costly. Vega Power Systems Ltd. UK one of the biggest manufacturers
of power generators in the world entrusted this job to us as they have
recognized the high quality of our technology and the skills. This is a
big honour to our country," he said.
Today he has become one of the main suppliers of these items to the "Welland
Engineering" in UK, a well-known name in power generator field in the
world.
Roshan started to manufacture power generators in 2002 and exported
them to Maldives and Nepal.
Today it has expanded to Indonesia, India and Japan. The latest order
of 33 power generators worth US dollars 320,000 received from a Japanese
company as a tsunami grant aid will be issued shortly.
All necessary machinery including an electronic workshop and a test
laboratory have already been installed at the Welisara factory complex.
Another modern factory is under construction at Nagoda, Kandana to
expand the manufacturing of power generators.
Today his company employs a work force of 120 including officers and
technicians. Another 40 employees are engaged on a casual basis. During
the past nine years Roshan has won several awards and certificates for
the generator field.
Among the host of awards he has won, the "TOYP" (Ten Outstanding
Young Persons) award for the year 2000 was a key one.
Roshan is very keen on the "ISO 9001: 2000" certificate which he
received very recently. Soar technology (Pvt) Ltd. was the first company
to get ISO certificate for the generator field in Sri Lanka.
Roshan has won best locally developed electronic product award and
best demonstration of the most recognised award given by the Institute
of Engineers, Sri Lanka.
National level Bronze award under the theme of Achiever in Industrial
Excellence conducted by Ceylon National Chamber of Industry, "FCCISL"
award for western province, Silver award for national level and Bronze
award for medium industry category were some awards which he has won.
Roshan Gunathilake a hard working young businessman who came forward
by overcoming challenges has made Sri Lanka proud by manufacturing high
quality power generators. |