Cosmetics trade is her forte

BY IRANGIKA Range

CONSTANCE Carroll, had a glamorous beginning in Sri Lanka in 1998 offering quality and wide colour ranges in cosmetics.

These products have become a Sri Lankan woman's best friend and has been introduced here by young Nirosha Jagodaarachchi, Country Manager and Director for the British Cosmetics (Pvt) Ltd for Sri Lanka.

Today, she has come up in her career achieving many goals in life due to the successful self performance in her work.

Studying beauty culture in the UK, her dream was to create a new dimension in the field by offering quality and demandable products to Sri Lankans.

Nirosha has achieved many accolades in her business by becoming the authorised distributor in Sri Lanka for world class cosmetics, Constance Carroll which has become a trend today.

She got involved in the business after she married Dimuth Jagodaarachchi. She realised much potential in Constance Carroll products and introduced it through beauty counters at Keells super markets.

With the high demand, she set up the first British Cosmetic showroom in Colpetty, which started in a small way.

It received a good response from local middle and upper middle class women between 16 to 75.

With the high turnover, the showroom shifted to the Majestic City.

Constance Carroll has a wide and vibrant colour range which has a good demand in the international market. It is a England based product and it is a number one product in many countries for the past 25 years. The parent company in England has a highly technical laboratory with a large workforce.

The company can handover personalised orders to the parent company. Products are manufactured after an order is placed. It doesn't manufacture in bulk to store in a warehouse.

It always updates according to market requirements. Constance Carroll has been tested in the laboratory and by dermatologists.

'I personally test and issue samples to friends and leading beauticians to get to know their response because I want to introduce good and quality products and not in the promotion of buying and selling mission,' she said.

The company expanded its distribution network covering the whole island. It distributes products through its main showrooms, islandwide and super markets' beauty counters and fancy houses and private direct dealers. The company has 65 percent market share sustaining 75 percent of sales growth.

To enhance the company service network, it introduced Peggy Sage cosmetics and Indola which is a world famous professional hair colour and has been categorised as a third best in the world.

Indola has big demand in the market because it has total of 87 colour ranges which is biggest number of colours available in Sri Lanka.

She expects to conduct training programmes for local women to provide them proper knowledge of beauty culture investing Rs.3 million to set up the training center in Bambalapitiya.

Among other future plans, the company will also set up two new outlets in Wellawatte and Kandy. It will also concentrate to open beauty counters in Arpico Showrooms.

'I am able to run my business successfully today with the support of my husband. He is the Managing Director of the company.

She has two daughters aged 7 and 4. 'We are a united family and always worked on our concept and shared the success and disappointments,' Nirosha said.

'I have to play the role of working as a wife, mother and a businesswoman. But I am able to manage everything by doing hardwork and getting correct decisions at the right time to achieve my goals without neglecting work,' she said.

She said entrepreneurs should be genuine, brave, innovative and courageous as to achieve goals in life.

She was a past pupil of The Sujatha Vidyalaya, Nugegoda and an active member of the school's hockey team. Most of her free time she spends with her two daughters while reading books.