BizBuds

Slow and steady wins business race - Janaka Ramanayaka

Ramani Kangaraarachchi
 

Janaka Ramanayake

He strongly believes that the country’s business should go forward along with good governance, right balance and Corporate Social Responsibility work.

This multi-talented young entrepreneur was interviewed by the Daily News Business. One could feel that he is a biz giant in terms of the volume of his business but in terms of age he is a bud in a giant business comprising fourteen business establishments engaged in Printing, Manufacturing of Carbonated Drinks and Purified Bottled Drinking Water, Credit and Finance, Exporting, Radio and Television Broadcasting and the Hotel Trade with Branches overseas in Malaysia, Dubai and Singapore.

Janaka Ramanayaka, a son of the Chairman MGMR Group Mahinda Ramanayaka is the eldest in the family of three He had his education at Ananda College, Colombo up to the Advanced Levels, and obtained a degree in Mass Communication from a university in Austria. He was keen on joining his father at the age of twenty-one. Initially, he was employed at MGMR Credit and Investment Company by his father.

However, his most favourite area was radio and television being the Director of the first ever animation teledrama titled Gorshila. The popular Max TV and Radio station started two years ago under the MGMR Organisation is one of his childhood dreams.

Great respect

“I have great respect for my father who guided me all the time and I know the pains he took to bring up the business to international standards. He started very small with a printing company twenty-six years ago when I was a small child.

The company was named Jaycey Industries Limited, denoting the names of his three children but I wanted it in my father’s name and changed the name two years ago. The company is in a new five-storied building in Nugegoda and has employed over six-hundred men and women, he said.

The companies include Amrith Indian Restaurant, Mr.Chico Texas, Shaa Beverages, Max Television and radio, Megaway Marketing & Services, Imax, MGM Credit & Investments, Fast Print, Miyura Entertainment, 609 Packaging, Stream Media, Hongkong Chinese and Amrith Indian Restaurant (Pvt) Ltd., registered under the Amrith Indian Recreational Complex (Pvt) Ltd and the Sri Lanka Tourist Board as an A Grade Tourist Restaurant.

The Sha Cola factory which is at Horana, is the sole producer of carbonated mineral water and fruit cocktails. It employs 110 workers and has a production capacity of nearly five million 1,500 ml carbonated drink bottles per month.

Imax, a Website Design and Web Development Services Company, set up in 2007 allows people and companies to access and publish their information on the World Wide Web (internet) and exchange electronic mails (emails) without the need to hire full-time system administrators, use of high-Bandwidth and 99% uptime.

They handle Sri Lanka’s most popular and best ranked web portal www.lanka.net called Sri Lanka Web Server from the beginning.

Latest equipment

Max TV station

Stream Media Network (Pvt)Ltd., is the production house affiliated to the organisation and is engaged in the production of Audio Video Commercial Advertisements, Radio and TV Sports, TeleDramas, Documentaries and films using the latest equipment and technology in the field.

Strongest Point

Referring to the success of his favourite Max Television and Radio, he said that the wide knowledge and experience about the field is the strongest point of Max success in taking the challenges of the present radio and television field.

“When I called for quotations to set up Max TV, offers worth Rs. 260,000 came but finally I did it for Rs. 10 lakhs because I am very careful with hard earned money, he said.

Asked about his future plans he said, “My father has taught me to follow the middle path and stay balanced all the time. I do not want to go very fast and collapse as what we observe today in many business places. My father always said that I don’t have to be the first but be slow and steady.

We have invested only our money in the business. A certain percentage of all our business profits goes to the Denetha Foundation which we have set up to educate 500 school children.

My future plan is to maintain what we have achieved while looking after our employees and doing good to the society and our country, he said