Torento makes it to the top

On a shoe string budget:

Dayantha de Soysa. Picture by Sumanachandra Ariyawansa

Sri Lanka is rich with many people who have inborn talents in various fields but they lack opportunities and facilities to develop and make use of those talents to benefit the country.

However, some people have come up the hard way and established a name in the country as well as overseas through their talents.

Torento Engineering (Pvt) Ltd, Managing Director, Dayantha de Soysa the only footwear machinery manufacturer in Sri Lanka is one such entrepreneur who started this business at a time all shoe machineries were imported spending huge amounts of foreign exchange.

He was interviewed by Daily News Business.

An old boy of Thurstan College Colombo, de Soysa was the third child in a family of six children hailing from Colombo.

He joined Ceylon Leather Products as an apprentice soon after his Ordinary Level Examination in 1971. He continued to work there for 16 years and gradually became a Foreman.

His work and talent was appreciated by the management very often and he was given double promotions twice. "That was a time that Sri Lanka imported machines required to the industry but that was not sufficient to meet the demand," he said.

Through experience I realized that I can manufacture some of these machines and provide employment to a lot of poor people. After work hours I designed some small machines successfully and I received orders from other small shoe industrialists in the market. Then I resigned from the job and started my company in 1986 at my home in Kadawatha in a very small way, he said.

He remembered Gigi Shoes Chairman, Sarath Padmalal with gratitude who helped him immensely by purchasing machineries from him during the early years. "All banks refused to give me loans because I did not have any properties to show.

For three years I had to rent out places and once that place also was flooded during the rainy season," he said. He faced many challenges due to lack of finance.

He applied for a tender to the Industrial Development Board (IDB) to supply shoe machinery and he was the only local manufacturer out of 12 applicants.

"The IDB officials had seen my products before at an exhibition held in Kirillawala and they were satisfied about them.

The imported machines by other companies were priced at Rs 2.2 million and the machine manufactured by me was priced at only Rs 475,000 and I got the order for six machines which I delivered it within two months to their satisfaction, he said.

Thereafter he continuously received orders from companies like DSI, Ranpa and other small shoe manufacturers islandwide.

In 2003 a Sri Lankan friend of his working in a shoe company in Papua New Guinea gave him the first export order. As a result of participating in national and other exhibitions he received more export orders to countries like India, South Africa and United States of America gradually.

De Soysa followed various technical courses and City and Guilds programs to qualify in the field and imparted that knowledge to the industry.

Employees at work at the factory in Weboda.

He designed a series of machines to the local foot wear industry at affordable prices to encourage small and medium entrepreneurs in the country. There are about 125 such entrepreneurs encouraged by him.

"Most of my machines are made in different upgraded designs to suit the customers wallet then small people also can enter the market.

The idea of making different designs of the same model is to upgrade the quality of shoes as and when manufacturers grow with the industry.

"I have developed about 40 different models of foot wear machines so far and my future plan is to venture into more innovative models.

My latest development is a PVC injection moulding machine and crusher along with a block ice making and ice crusher machine designed and fabricated with own technology, he said. Torento is also the leading cutting die manufacturer accepted by the BOI and shoe moulds and hat moulds for products that are manufactured for the export market through BOI.

If Torento did not emerge 23 years ago, the amount of foreign exchange lost to the country would have been massive. The company has won a number of district, provincial, national and international awards in recognition of its valuable services including Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 Bronze.

The most recognized award was Jeewanshuri honorary title for remarkable personal achievement and dedicated services towards the well being of mankind.

The company has diversified into children's footwear manufacturing industry from this year under the brand name of 'Toto' which would generate new employment and improve skills.

Torento has identified the need of moulds to the manufacturing industry of Sri Lanka and a plant is under-way which would save foreign exchange.

The success of Torento is high quality of its products and reliable after sales service and the unity of its employees, de Soysa said.