Biz Bud

Analytical Instruments does wonders:

Technology makes revolutionary changes in people’s lives

Ramani Kangaraarachchi

Abeyrathna Jayasundara	Renuka Jayasundara

Technology has made revolutionary changes in the lives of people in the last few decades.

When developing countries have the advantage of having modern technology they can develop faster.

Analytical Instruments (Pvt) Ltd, a pioneer in the business who provided a total technology solution to the health care and laboratory sector in Sri Lanka has done wonders through their valuable service during the past 20 years.

The founders of the Company, Abeyrathna Jayasundara and Renuka Jayasundara, the husband and wife duo caters to the needs of two different segments in the same field. They have made the company grow from strength to strength and provide jobs for more than hundred people in the company.

The duo was interviewed by Daily News Business. Talking to one person was not sufficient to get the right concept of the company as its nature was so different. It was a business combined to provide the spectrum of diverse solutions in technology transfer to historical findings, water quality, export agriculture to a future of innovative research and preventive and curative healthcare.

The two science graduates, Abeyrathna from the University of Colombo and Renuka from the Institute of Chemistry worked in a private company connected to laboratory equipment as sales executives where they started their career. However, Abeyrathna decided to start a business of his own in the same field after five years when Renuka joined an international Diagnostic company as the country manager.

It was at a small rented house in Kirulapona. Abeyrathna commenced his business with the little capital he had and started providing water testing equipment for laboratories. After some time Renuka was invited to be the distributor for the company she worked before promoting healthcare equipment such as gluco meters which she accepted to do via her husband’s company, Analytical Instruments (Pvt) Ltd. Her job was completely different to that of her husband.

High quality

While Abeyrathna dealt with the equipment required for the universities, research centres and laboratories Renuka handled the equipment required for medical diagnostics. The Company has three divisions now. - Analytical Division, Medical Division and Agricultural Division.

Our work philosophy is to ensure customer success with quality work standards. Our motto is First Time right. We become highly worried if some one calls and informs us that the machine is not working properly. We are extremely careful about high quality after sales service for the machines we provide, he said.

The role of the company varies from providing infrastructure support to pharmaceutical manufacture, medical laboratories maintain laboratory standards, industrial research, effluent control, water quality monitoring, export agriculture, tissue culture and petroleum testing.

Our Analytical division was one of the first to get involved in successful technology transfer of the PCR (Polymer Clean Reaction) technology, an innovative technological tool for DNA identifications, Abeyrathna said.

The prestigious technology offered ranges from Atomic Absorption, High performance liquid chromatography, Mass spectroscopy, Automation in Biochemistry and hematology microbiology to general chemicals and glassware, The company may be the first in the industry to have obtained the ISOA 9001 certification.

Global innovations

Renuka adds value to the company by adapting global innovations recognizing the best in the culture, heritage, history and people within the company and at customer institutions.

Renuka said that the automation of biochemistry department at the National Hospital was done by them 10 years ago which speaks volumes of the company’s continuous presence in the industry.

The services of the national hospital expanded with their involvement in the arenas of Microbiology, hematology biochemistry, electrolytes and immunochemistry.

We are passionate to generate a quality laboratory report for the low income groups of society in remote cities such as Jaffna, Batticaloa, Vavuniya, Ampara Hambantota, Nuwara Eliya and Anuradhapura at the same quality standards similar to prestigious laboratories in Colombo.

The company was shifted to their own, full fledged five-storeyed building in Elwitigala Mawatha, Borella two years ago which is built with fine architecture to suit their philosophy of business.

It has a mini gym for the staff to keep fit after work, a small meditation centre and even a little baby room with all the comfort for the use of the staff. We have come up to this position because of the hard work of our staff and they are our most valuable asset.

Therefore, we want to make them feel that this place is like their home, Renuka said.

Self-sufficiency

When everything went smoothly with Analytical Instruments (Pvt)Ltd, Abeyrathna diversified into another area that he was dreaming of. He is confident that the country could be self-sufficient in milk and uplift the living standards of the farmer. The farmer is provided the infrastructure and technology leading to a huge saving of foreign exchange on imported milk powder.

It is a great encouragement that the government is well focused on this area correctly identifying the value of this industry. If we provide the technology and infrastructure we can give a very attractive price to the farmer, Abeyrathna said.

Abeyrathna was the first to import high bred heifers to the country for the national program towards self-sufficiency in milk. The project incorporating artificial insemination programs to milk production has been a noteworthy milestone of the Agriculture division.

Asked about his future plans, Abeyrathna said that he is looking for a land to set up a breeding farm along with a milk processing plant on a long term lease which will help the farmer. Meanwhile, Renuka is keen on having a link with a foreign university to improve training and development of people in her field and suppor the laboratories in their drive towards accreditation.

HSBC’s finance chief says bailout ‘unthinkable’ - Report

HSBC’s finance chief said the banking giant will not require a British government bailout even if economic conditions in Britain or the United States worsen, a report said Monday.

Douglas Flint, the chief financial officer of HSBC holdings, said the company’s recently-announced rights issue would provide more than enough capital, the South China Morning Post said.

“The 17.7 billion US dollars we are raising seemed to be an amount that made us extremely robust in any set of circumstances we could foresee,” he said, according to the Post.

Flint said HSBC would not have to follow Lloyds TSB and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) into taxpayer-funded bailouts.

“We are in a totally different position. We were one of the few banks in the world that were profitable last year. It is unthinkable,” he told the paper.

Both RBS and Lloyds TSB have needed huge bailout packages from the British government in the past 12 months.

Flint added that troubled American lender Household Financial Corporation would stop needing extra financial help from the parent group by the end of next year, the English-language daily said.

HSBC reported a 70 per cent tumble in annual net profit for 2008 earlier this month, mainly due to a huge write-off linked to the dire performance of its US unit.

It also said it hoped to raise the 17.7 billion dollars in a rights issue to fund new business opportunities, insisting it did not need the cash to shore up its balance sheet.

AFP

Singapore economy to shrink 4.9% in ’09 - Survey

Singapore analysts slashed forecasts for 2009 economic growth - and now expect a severe recession - as the global slowdown hurts demand for the city-state’s exports.

The country’s gross domestic product will likely shrink 4.9 per cent this year, according to the median forecast of 20 economists in a quarterly survey released by the central bank Monday.

But they expect a recovery by 2010, when the economy is seen expanding 3.3 per cent.

AP