Sri Lanka Business News | Online edition of Daily News

Established in 1860 by Mudaliyar Don Carolis Hewavitarne, Don Carolis and Sons (Pvt) Ltd is Sri Lanka's pioneer furniture manufacturer and the oldest indigenous business in the country. The company began in a very modest way in a corner of Pettah's Keyzer Street. The firm's first factory "Steam Furniture Works" was situated in Colombo 2, Slave Island.

Exports of furniture commenced in 1886 when the first shipment was sent to Australia and by the turn of the 20th century, Don Carolis was exporting to the UK, India, Burma, South Africa and the USA.

The Pettah showroom, occupied a space of nearly three acres, displaying furniture of every description. It was the first department store in Asia with over 50 departments offering everything from cutlery to carpeting and the introduction of the mail order catalogue in 1907 was perhaps the first in the region.

Don Carolis obtained Gold and Silver medals for furniture exhibited at the Ceylon Agricultural Exhibitions, the Indian Industrial Exhibition of 1901, the Paris Exhibition of 1900, and the St. Louis Exposition of 1904. In 1948 the Government of Ceylon commissioned H. Don Carolis and Sons to create a 17 piece bedroom suite as a wedding gift to her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the II.

Don Carolis has since then had the unique privilege of providing furniture to both the new and old Parliaments of Sri Lanka, the President's residence and office, Prime Minister's residence and office, Ministries and Government institutions and the Armed Forces.

The timber used

The durability and quality of Don Carolis furniture is achieved primarily from the timber used and their manufacturing processes that have built in stringent quality controls at all stages.

Don Carolis's range of furniture comprises mainly of items manufactured using exotic tropical hardwoods such as Mahogany, Ceylon Teak, Asian Oak and materials such veneers, stainless steel, wrought iron & cane.

All of Don Carolis's timber requirements are purchased from the State or from private merchants. To ensure that they do not purchase illegal felled timber, which is quite common in the local furniture trade, Don Carolis only purchase plantation grown timber, felled with the necessary Government Issued permits.

Plantation grown timbers are generally harvested after 25 years and in some cases over 40 years. Once the trees are felled, these lands, be it state or private, are replanted.

All Don Carolis furniture is manufactured at two factories, one in Moratuwa, which also houses their chemical treatment and killing plants and the other is their ultra modern and streamlined factory situated in Galpatha, in the Kalutara District, which commenced operations in late 2009. This state-of-the-art factory, spread across 60,000 sq ft., handles every single aspect of the manufacturing process in house. This enables Don Carolis to guarantee that the highest standards of quality are maintained throughout every stage.

With the opening of the new factory in Galpatha, the company commenced the employment of women in the production process for the first time. This has enabled many women residing in and around this area and whose employment was limited to the garment sector to venture out and find employment in a hitherto male dominated industry. Combining traditional methods and commitment to craftsmanship with new advanced technology and modern equipment, Don Carolis are able to offer the very best to their customers. Every piece of timber used is carefully chosen and acclimatized to suit the varying weather conditions for overseas orders. Each and every single step of the manufacturing process is monitored with intense attention to detail and stringent quality control checks.

The legacy continues

Today, Don Carolis continues to evolve and expand. The company is owned by the descendents of the founder and currently managed by the fourth and fifth generations.

In 2005, Don Carolis looked within for inspiration and opened a home store "The Warehouse" at Vauxhall Street - the largest in Sri Lanka.

In keeping with today's styles and trends, the "Warehouse" offers a vast range of furniture, accessories, gifts and gift vouchers.

The Don Carolis client list includes leading hotels in Sri Lanka, India & the Maldives, apartments, clubs, restaurants, hospitals and officers.

Don Carolis has a very strong design team, who offer total interior solutions. This complementary service is offered by Don Carolis to all their customers and is not limited to corporate clients.

Incorporating the client's wishes, the Dons design team gives a comprehensive plan that covers everything from the furniture to flooring, lighting effects and curtaining.

In addition to supplying furniture in Sri Lanka, Don Carolis has been exporting to many countries and has their own showroom in India.

Packing & Shipping

Don Carolis also has a freight forwarding, packing and shipping division that specializes in sending their products and any customer's personal effects all over the world.

Firewood substitution

At present, Don Carolis the only furniture company in Sri Lanka that converts the waste saw-dust and wood shavings into a totally eco friendly product, known as briquettes.

As a part of their corporate environment responsibility initiatives, which begins at the Don Carolis factories with minimum pollution and maximum recycling, the briquetting plant situated in Moratuwa, creates value from an otherwise environmental hazard.

The sawdust and debris is usually discarded into rivers and marsh land and dumped onto beaches.

The briquetting operation also creates additional employment for many people in the area who collect the sawdust and waste from surrounding timber mills, which is then purchased by Don Carolis.

It also serves to enable the smaller wood mills to dispose of sawdust and waste in an environmentally friendly manner. By encouraging the use of 'briquettes', Don Carolis helps to reduce the amount of trees being felled for firewood.

The briquettes are made to eco-standards with no chemicals being used in the manufacturing process. They are moulded using pressure binding and therefore are 100 percent natural.

They cost less to produce and provide an effective green solution to industries such as tea which require heavy use of firewood. Don Carolis already provides sawdust briquettes to several leading names in the plantation and garment sectors and some of the briquettes produced by them are used as an alternative to firewood in their own kilns.

As a part of their corporate environmental responsibility program, Don Carolis commenced the planting of Teak in 2005 and plan on increasing the acreage in future.

Link Natural launches earth essence

earth essence, the new array of herbal cosmetics manufactured by Link Natural Products, was launched in style during an elegant ceremony held on December 7 at Galle Face Hotel. The occasion was graced by fashion gurus and leaders in the fashion world, celebrities, media and other well-wishers.

"With beauty trends changing world over, increasing emphasis has been laid on 'staying healthy' while 'looking beautiful', leading many to pick herbal products and remedies for skin, body and hair, over the more conventional products.

The premium range of herbal cosmetics of earth essence are nature's gifts that offer protection and nourishment for one's hair, body and skin, while also improving their total well-being," said Personal Care Products Manager Nalika Jayasuriya.

Products offered in this range include hair care, bath and body care, skin care and hand and feet care. Special skin care products, effective against wrinkles, stretch marks and sunburn, as well as an exclusive spa range, which includes body massage oils, essential oils, oil blends and carrier oils are also available.

The main ingredients for the earth essence range of products are herbs and plants such as Gotukola, Turmeric, Sandalwood, Welmee and Wenivel, which have long been proven to have health giving properties.

The products are manufactured by combining formulations using knowledge derived from trusted ayurveda systems and modern science and technology. Stringent quality control measures are adopted in all stages of manufacturing and packaging to ensure that customers are provided with the best of the best in herbal care.

Photo Technica colours for Christmas

Photo Technica introduced a range of modern Nikon digital cameras manufactured by Japan's Nikon Corporation in a variety of colours especially for the coming Christmas and New Year season.

Customers can select from high mega pixels, the wide and tele zoom range, large screen models and from a choice of eight colour types. All those modern Nikon cameras has video filming facilities with HD modern technology and customers can do video filming for hours and the pictures and videos can be edited. The cameras come with one year's warranty and after sales service from Photo Technica.

Renowned photographer Fred Malvenna founded photo Technica in 1958. The company is engaged in importing and selling cameras and camera equipment, camera repairing, processing and printing colour photographs and providing instant photo solutions. Photo Technica is the official sales and distribution agent of world's leading brands of cameras such as Nikon, Pentex and Yashica.

The head office of Photo Technica is located at Colpetty and its sales outlets are located at Liberty Plaza and duty free shops in transit and departure lounges at Bandaranaike International Airport.

Metropolitan Office launches Rowe

One of the fastest growing sectors of Sri Lanka, the construction industry has seen a boom since the end of the three decade war that destroyed the infrastructure and buildings in the North and the East of the country. Rebuilding and redesigning towns, irrigation systems, road networks, Government offices and factories destroyed by the conflict are high on the Government agenda. The growth of the industry must be well supported by technology that protects these valuable documents.

Stacks of records piling up in record rooms are a too common scenario. Even more common is the stress of an official trying to find a blue print or a town plan design from this pile. Damaged, deteriorated plans and designs can only be preserved by using technology that helps archive, store and catalogue large format documents.

The robust made in Germany A0 wide format MFD Rowe machine fills this much-felt void in the industry, by offering high quality, long lasting and easy reference cataloguing and archiving functions that has made the ROWE machine one of the most sought after equipment among top global town planners and designers.

"This machine is unique because this archiving and cataloguing function is not offered by any machine available in the local market, said Metropolitan Office Pvt Ltd Sales and Marketing Head Ali Asgar Roshanali.

Archiving, scanning, copying and cataloguing is only some of the features of the ROWE wide format machine. It can also speedily scan, print and copy any large document such as blueprints, designs and plans.

SLT reduces call charges, rental

Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), recently introduced new, more simplified and more customer friendly call plans for Megaline customers. Two different sets of call plans are now on offer for new and existing Megaline customers; Mega-Office, targeted at business customers and Mega-Home, for residential customers.

Mega-Home

Under this call plan, there is no start up fee involved and the rental is only Rs 310 per month, compared to the earlier rental of Rs 345. Call rates vary depending on three variables: the call type (whether calls are made within the SLT network, or calls made to other networks); whether single (voice only), dual (voice and broadband and IPTV) or triple play (voice, broadband and IPTV); the time during which the calls are made (either during active hours - between 07.00am and 07.00pm on weekdays and 07.00am to 02.00pm on Saturdays, or during leisure hours - between 07.00pm and 07.00am the following day on weekdays, on Saturdays from 02.00pm to 07.00am and 03.00pm to midnight and the full day on Sundays and other public holidays).

Therefore, the number of off-peak (leisure hours) has been extended from 63 hours to 101 hours whereas peak hours (active hours) have been reduced to 67 hours, from 105 hours of earlier. For residential customers, since more than 50 percent of calls are made during the leisure hour period, this call plan provides them with the lowest call rates in the country of Rs 1 per minute for SLT to SLT calls and Rs 2 per minute for calls to other networks during this period.

During active hours, call charges have been further reduced for double play and triple play customers, to encourage double/triple play and help customers to obtain the maximum value for money. As a bonus feature, Mega-Home call plan offers free CLI (caller line identification) and 100 minutes of free talk time for calls within the SLT network.

Mega-Office

The Mega-Office call plan also does not include a start up fee, and the monthly rental has been further reduced to Rs 499 from the previous monthly rental of Rs 950.

In business customers, it has been found that more than 50 percent of calls last longer than three minutes; hence time bands are not differentiated for these customers and instead they are provided with the lowest calling rates in the country for majority of their calling minutes - that is Rs 1 per minute for SLT to SLT calls and Rs 2 per minute for calls to other networks, from the third minute onwards.

Upto the third minute, these customers are charged at Rs 1.90 per minute for calls within the SLT network and Rs 2.90 per minute for calls to other networks for single play customers whereas further reductions are provided for double and triple play customers to encourage and promote double and triple play for the provision of optimum benefits for these customers.

Mega-Office customers are also provided priority fault attendance and more value added services free of charge including CLI, Call waiting, Call conferencing, Call forwarding, Abbreviated dialling, and Absentee services.

For both Mega-Home and Mega-Office call plans, all call charges are calculated on a per minute basis and SLT Internet dial up charges remain at 50 cents per minute for all time bands and call types.

Asian Paints rewards dealers

Over 100 dealers of Asian Paints Lanka have been rewarded with foreign tours to Switzerland, Thailand and Hong Kong in the last seven months for outstanding sales performances for the India - headquartered multinational coatings company.

Elite dealers who belong to the Asian Paints 'Privilege Club' were treated to a tour of Switzerland while dealers who exceeded sales targets for the concluded financial year received two tours to Thailand and Hong Kong.

Asian Paints Lanka also conducted its annual awards ceremony for 'Privilege Club' members in Lucerne at which it rewarded top dealers for their outstanding sales performances throughout the year.

Asian Paints' top dealers have in previous years toured India, Thailand, Malaysia, Dubai, New Zealand, Australia, France, Spain and Egypt.

AIT joins SAITM

Thailand's Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), which is one of the most renowned universities in the world specializing in Engineering research has teamed up with the Malabe's South Asian Institute of Technology and Management (SAITM), to offer a universally recognized four year BSc degree program in software engineering and computer science.

The course is designed to cater to vast career opportunities available, not only in Sri Lanka but throughout the world, particularly in Australia, Canada, the UK and the South-East Asian Region.

In this context it is important to note that any modern software engineering course should encompass the latest developments and should be coupled with research and training connected to the industry where future career prospects exist for the graduates. This is one area AIT is strongest with a vast network of links with the industry spanning the globe in addition to affiliations and collaborations with top research organizations and universities.

The importance of four years of study instead of three years in a standard BSc degree program should be emphasized as only the former is fully recognized by the professional bodies and the industry.

Students who have obtained three passes in local or London A-Ls in the mathematics stream are eligible for enrolment and those who have followed bio stream can do so on condition to obtain a pass in mathematics in A-Ls. This high end degree, very competitively priced in keeping with AITs policy of empowering youth of Asia at an affordable cost, will open the doors to some of the world's top industries in aerospace, automobile, robotics and manufacturing and in the corporate sector into Banking and Finance.

AIT also offers top quality degrees in civil and infrastructure engineering, mechatronics engineering, electronics engineering and telecommunication engineering, all four year BSc engineering degrees, which are highly sought after in the entire Asian region with ready acceptance throughout the world. The reputation and recognition of AIT is such that within one year of commencing of courses at SAITM in Sri Lanka, more than 150 students have enrolled and are successfully following undergraduate studies under the guidance of some of the best professors and senior lecturers from state universities.

The students are provided with laboratory facilities which are certainly the best available among the private tertiary educational institutes and are in par with any state university.

LOLC donates warmer to CNH

LOLC Group Managing Director Kapila Jayawardena handing over the Electric Convective Warmer with ten Adult Full Body Warming Blankets to the Sri Lanka National Hospital Director Dr Hector Weerasinghe. The Sri Lanka National Hospital Accident Services Deputy Director Dr Prasad Ariyawansa and ‘Friends of the Accident Service’ Tissa Jayaweera were also present.

LOLC recently donated an Electric Convective Warmer with ten Adult Full Body Warming Blankets to the Sri Lanka Colombo National Hospital (CNH) Accident Service.

The equipment were handed over by LOLC Group Managing Director Kapila Jayawardena to Sri Lanka National Hospital Director Dr Hector Weerasinghe at a handing over ceremony held recently at the Accident Service auditorium. Sri Lanka National Hospital Accident Services Deputy Director Dr Prasad Ariyawansa and ‘Friends of the Accident Services’ representative Tissa Jayaweera were also present at the ceremony.

The Colombo Accident Service carries out around 60 operations a day, of which a majority of patients undergoing lengthy operations require the use of Electric Convective Warmers to keep their body temperatures to the required level during the operative stage. However, the non availability of the warmers at the Accident Service operating theatres has left many patients in grave situations resulting in patients going into Hypothermia, which can result in even loss of life. Taking into consideration the severity of the situation, LOLC came forward to assist the Accident Service at their hour of need.

These blankets will be used for the requirements of the Accident Service Orthopaedic Theatre as well as the Casualty Theatre.

Sri Lanka National Hospital Director Dr Hector Weerasinghe said, “We are extremely grateful of the cooperation and generosity extended to us by LOLC. The equipment was donated at a time when we were experiencing an urgent need of it. LOLC voluntarily got involved in this worthy cause, without any hesitation, which is extremely praiseworthy. I would also like to thank Tissa Jayaweera for his involvement in making this happen.”

John Keells Logistics goes to India

Sri Lankan High Commissioner for India Prasad Kariyawasam and John Keells Transportation Group President Romesh David at the opening.

The John Keells Logistics India (Pvt) Ltd (JKLI) North India office was relocated to Gurgaon on December 6. The relocation is an integral part of the overall objective of expanding the India Footprint, by establishing JKLI’s presence across key markets.

The new office was opened by the Sri Lankan High Commissioner for India, Prasad Kariyawasam and John Keells Transportation Group President Romesh David.

DSL top dealers tour Bangkok

Douglas and Sons (Pvt.) Ltd (DSL) together with its principals hosted its battery dealers to an all-expenses-paid holiday in Bangkok this year.

Approximately 250 dealers islandwide are actively engaged in selling DSL’s Global, Yuasa, Incoe and Quantum range of automotive batteries. In appreciation of their sincere efforts at driving profitability for the company, Douglas and Sons (Pvt.) Ltd hosted them and their families to Bangkok for a free holiday. DSL Chairman Saroj Perera said “We are honoured to be able to have this opportunity to reward our dealers in this manner. They have worked exceptionally hard this year to generate sales amidst the slow economic growth witnessed in the first half of 2010.” DSL planned an exciting holiday in Bangkok for their dealers as a way of expressing their gratitude for the loyalty and support through the years.

Don Carolis marks 150 years