Passion for IT driven technology pays dividends :
Digital printing his forte
Ramani KANGARAARACHCHI
|
Dilhan
Jayawardena |
Many people with inborn talents and professional skills prefer to
stand up on their own rather than working for somebody else.
Managing
Director, Digital Print International (Pvt) Ltd, Dilhan Jayawardena
started his career in the corporate sector and worked for several
companies in marketing positions but did not have the job satisfaction
until he became an entrepreneur.
He was interviewed by Daily News Business.
"I never got the opportunity to use my knowledge and talent fully in
any of the places I worked and there was a huge gap always. When I
realized that I cannot go beyond a certain position in that manner I
decided to start a business of my own. I had a passion towards IT driven
technology and I went in that direction", he said.
Manufacturing
Jayawardena, an old boy of Ananda College, Colombo is the youngest in
the family of three children. After completing his Advanced Level
Examination, he obtained a degree from a university in UK. His first job
was at YKK Zippers as a Sales Executive and after some time he shifted
to Clipsal and then to Haris Ceylon.
Manufacturing billboards, hoardings and dealer boards was the area he
selected to start his own business. "I started at Kalubowila with an
initial investment of a few lakhs of rupees in 2003 with three
employees. At present I have 65 employees and have become one of the
leading marcom solutions company providing integrated solutions to
customers.
Difficulty
My company specializes in all kinds of fabrications such as
manufacturing hoardings, MDF and hard wood fabrication, gondolas display
units, furniture, pantry cupboards as well as offset and large format
photo quality indoor and outdoor digital printing, he said.
Asked whether he had any difficulty at the beginning, he said, "Yes,
I faced a big problem when I imported an expensive machine from
Singapore. It was a brand new digital printing machine but it did not
work.
Then I contacted the Singapore company and made a complaint. They did
their best to repair it, changed parts but still it did not work. I had
to suffer for three months as I had a lot of expectations about the
business and when the machine did not work for three months I did not
know what to do. I cried at times.
The company asked me to send the machine back but it was too
expensive and I could not afford it. It set me thinking from the
beginning and there was one point that I had not thought about. That was
about the ink I used. I immediately called the Singapore company and
asked them to try it.
I was right. The kind of ink that was used was not compatible with
the machine in Sri Lankan weather due to low humidity and the ink had
not strained through the tiny holes in the machine. The machine
eventually worked after changing the ink. I will never forget this
incident in my life, he said. That was the only problem I faced. "I had
many personal contacts and entering the market was not difficult because
I had the latest technology that many people did not have.
Success
|
Digital
printing in progress - Picture by Sumanachandra Ariyawansa. |
I have a Large Format Digital Printing machine which is very useful.
I got the opportunity to export certain large format digital printing
flexes taken by this machine," he said.
Asked what was behind, his success, he said " I did not take any
loans to start the business and all the money that came from the
business was reinvested to improve it. Today my monthly turnover is
about Rs.15 million. I work very hard when there is work. I work day and
night with my dedicated staff. Our priority is quality.
We are very concerned about this and that is my success, he said.
Talking about the current recession, he said that it has not impacted
on his business but there is a delay in getting the money from his
clients. Jayawardena's future plan is to diversify his business to other
related areas and become the
No one fabrication company in Sri Lanka. His clients include Airtel,
Tigo, DEMO, Unilever, Aitken Spence and many other reputed companies in
the country. |