Dissanayaka took Pastel business by storm

Shirajiv Sirimane in Kandy

Ever since he could remember, J.U.K. Dissanayaka had a passion to draw. He used not only chalk, pencils, pens but even charcoal to paint images and when he became a teenager he though to manufacture some of the chalk and pastels at home.

During this time his father too was involved in the manufacturing process but he though to go solo and started his own facility at the backyard of his home in Mawilmada, Kandy in 2002.

He also used his scientific skills gained during school to experiment and got the right formula to his products and soon expanded by hiring four casual employees.

Though his pastels were of high quality marketing them was very hard and he studied the patterns of the Maharaja Organization and Levers Brothers (Uni Lever) and took a leaf from their marketing ‘tactics’ and started meeting teachers in the area.

Thought the teachers were fascinated by this new innovation it was very difficult to convince shops to purchases his goods since there were many foreign pastels freely available in the market.

He then sponsored several art competitions in schools which created a awareness for his products and also a demand.

This marketing ploy had good returns and soon the shop owners were calling him to obtain his products. “It is not an exaggeration to say that during this time there were queues in Kandy and Kegalle book shops demanding my products.”

Due to the high demand he had to expand and finances were a major draw back since banks were reluctant to advance money for products of this nature. During this time the GTZ saw his talents and advanced Rs. 500, 000 which helped him to increase production and this was followed up by his company being honored with many ‘SME’ sector awards.

In 2005 September he re branded his business as ‘Pentium 2000 colour industries’ and today his products has over 45 % of market share. During the beginning 2000, over 50 % of pastels were imported and today this has reduced to less than 5 % and I am happy that I could play a role towards this,” he said.

Due to high quality of Pentium 2000 products they have won haul of awards including the Presidential award and the Best Entrepreneur award which he said was very encouraging.

He said that the company also moved into a new factory in Waththegama, and has been helping the community in the area by out sourcing part of their packaging sector to over 400 villagers.

“This has also helped to minimize family problems in the area and people in the area are living in better conditions,” he added.

As a part of the companies CSR initiatives he has helped rural schools with cash donations and also redone the road to the village which was in a dilapidated state.

Even new water lines were laid and these CSR initiatives have also earned him many awards.

He said the factory is environmental friendly with no toxic fumes, waste being released to the neighbourhood.

One of the key successes of his business is the innovation and most of the machinery including a kiln which uses paddy husk at their Meegama Watta, Waththegama, Kandy factory is designed by him.

Looking back he said that he should thank NDB bank for coming forward to extend Rs. 2.5 million credit facility to improve his business.

“This helped me to extend my product range to water colours, fabric paints and even to stationery.”

One of the flagship products of Pentium 2000 is their pastel which could draw in 10 different surfaces and is used by both children and even artists.

The artistic talent and the artistic heritage, from farther to son, the love, and determination for encouraging development of artistic talent among the country’s child generation along with the knowledge gained from 14 years of research resulted in the creation of this Wonderful multi-purpose pastel.

His sheer quality of products which even has won international certification has not only captured the local market but today even Japan imports Pentium 2000 products.

“We will be exporting our product range to Europe and many other countries by the end of this year,” he said proudly.