Entrepreneur with unique touch

Shirajiv Sirimane in Kegalle

A young man who helped out his brother in his apparel shop in Kegalle writing bills and issuing goods has today built his own ‘Dress Points’ and is aiming to have 2,000 employees by 2015.

It was 23 years ago when Mario Pille Selvaraj started helping out his brother at Sriyani Textiles Kegalle and seeing the immense opportunities in the trade he decided to start his own ‘shop’ with just 8 employees.

With his unique entrepreneurial touch ‘Sriyani Dress Point’ drew customers in large number and in 1993 he invested Rs. 3.8 million to move to his own three storeyed building. Selvaraj was mainly in to buying and selling and in a bid to increase profits and also provide a ‘local touch’ to his products he started his own apparel factory. “providing employment to the under privileged ‘youth’ in the area too was one of my concerns,” he said.

He said that in a bid to give some thing back to the community they are also engaged in several other initiatives and they are currently building a new temple in Kegalle.

Selvaraj imported fabric from China and India and also created his own brand names and designs to give a high quality product at an affordable price to the local customer.

“My main market was the middle class and today even the affluent, including tourist shops visit my show rooms,” he said proudly.

With his success at Kegalle he opened two other outlets in Kurunegala and Kandy and one unique feature is that all of them are multi- storeyed and customers are assured that he or she could find what they are looking for.

He said that in addition to kids wear they also specialize in wedding wear and have special agents who send them high quality wedding sarees from India.

He said today they manufacture over 75% of ladies items and 60% of gents wear from their factories. “We also outsource and always maintain high quality,” he said.

Asked if he is having competition from ‘pavement hawkers’ he answered in the negative. “Firstly they cannot match our quality and secondly since we buy wholesale, Sriyani Dress Point prices are in par or perhaps lower than the pavement vendors.”“Another advantage we have over competitors is the unique style we offer as we have our own designers at our garment factory,” he said.

Commenting on today's market trends he said that people spend more money today than two decades ago. “In the 1980's people hardly wore any ready- made garments and today one cannot find a person who would give measurements for a garment unless it is for a wedding.”

He said that one of the main reasons for this is that today the ‘choice’ for finished products are huge and tailors are hard to find. “People also don't have time to visit the tailors several times for measurements, fit-on and to collect the finished product. Ready-made garments are also cheaper,” he said

He said his next aim is to enter Colombo and the Southern Province and has already picked several properties to open his concept of dress points. “We would also be opening a second seven storeyed complex in Kurunegala and is also targeting to have their second dress point in Kandy too.”

Commenting on the industry he said that they are disappointed that the government imposes a 12% VAT on locally manufactured apparels. The same tax of 12% VAT remains for ready-made garments . “This is very unfair since the government should more incentives for locally manufactured products,” he said.

Selvaraj says that his children are studying overseas and his daughter would get involved in the business when she completes her studies.

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