Her business winds waft overseas

Irangika Range

PERSEVERANCE: Inspiring tremendous vitalization, a woman had projected herself to achieve her business oriented aspirations in the local agriculture market and in furtherance she had the perseverance to waft her business winds to several other countries too.

She is Nimzia Najeeb the Proprietor of Serendib Exports who has proved her skills, commitment and capability. The Women's Chamber of Industries and Commerce has granted the Merit Certificate at the Women's Entrepreneur for the Year 2006 under the medium investment category.

She was involved with her husband's business. She gathered a knowledge in many "potentials in exporting agricultural based products." "I descended from a business family and involved with my husband's business, I wanted to start a company of my own," she said.

Having gained a basic knowledge on handling business from her husband and her father who was also a fruits and vegetable exporter, she was able to make her idea a reality by starting to export fruits and vegetables to Kuwait.

The birthplace of her business namely "Serendib Exports" was at her residence in Gampola. She purchased fruits and vegetables from the Kandy market at the beginning. But She was unable to find all varieties of fruits and vegetables and due to the lack of availability in the Kandy market she had to face a problem. As a remedial measure to meet the demand, she has commenced collecting points where fruits were abundant. She sent two shipments weighing 1600kg initially. But she had a problem of reaching the Airport at Katunayake at the correct time from Gampola.

She shifted her business transactions to Maradana, where her brother was running the same business. She utilised his stalls at the beginning. She said that it was the first year of her business and she had to incur a loss nearly Rs.Two million. "I faced severe losses since I had to pay the defaulted payment to consignees in Kuwait. Despite the loss, she never discouraged and continued the business while finding solutions for the problems.

Her husband Nabil Najeeb, a businessman, provided with financial assistance, and asked her to continue the business. She said "my husband was my strength and had realised my capabilities well." She said that she was fortunate and soon after the Gulf war her exporting had increased 45 fold.

Even though her first shipment was 800kg of fruits and vegetables, she was able to increase it upto 4000kg with the high demand in Kuwait. "I could repay my loans and recuperate from losses with these profits.

Facing many challenges and proving capabilities of her work, she had been able to expand her business to Kolonnawa in 2004. The export quantity was increased from four shipments to six shipments. She received orders to export fruits and vegetables from Jeddah as well.

The fruits collected from various places are cleaned, processed, selected, packed in the night by her staff and taken them to the Airport. One export ranges from 3000kgs to 5000kgs.

There is a high demand for some vegetables and fruits in different seasons in foreign countries. Over eight suppliers come from various areas in the country.

Unlike local business exports transactions is not a child's play. Placing orders, preparing export documents, wharfing dealing with customers and attending to airport formalities is not an easy task. It needs a pensive brain to attend to all these necessities.

Her service is appreciable because she is a woman. She expanded her business to Peliyagoda. She supplies always fresh and unadulterated fruits and vegetables for her consignees. The success of the business mainly based on this.

To fulfil their requirements, she always had to collect good fruits and vegetables from local suppliers. She had a set of suppliers who were confident of supplying class one fruits and vegetables. Also she was careful to pay them in time and payments to their satisfaction.

She in the process of diversifying in other areas of business such as rice, stationery and dryrations. She said all the perseverance. she gathered to become a successful entrepreneur was a difficult mileage in the past. The difficult pillars built her Business Empire.

She was a past pupil of Zahira College Gampola. She has two daughters and one son and they study at Colombo International School in Kandy.

"I always give priority to my family values that I earned and as a mother, wife and business woman I was able to balance my time understanding my responsibilities and countabilities. Myself and my husband always allocate time to have associations with their children by helping them for studies and having leisure talks with them.

She has gained many achievements in her life and the National Chamber of Export had granted her two awards on agriculture under the small category for the year 2003/2004 and 2004/2005. She has also won the Gold Award for highest perishable cargo in Kuwait Airways for last three years.