DSI to make further inroads in region

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

D. Samson Industries is looking to open several showrooms in India in a quest to expand their foot print in the region. Managing Director, D. Samson Industries, Kulatunga Rajapaksa said that they are looking at openings in Chennei, Bangalore and Coimbatore.

“We already export rubber slippers, tyres and other products to India and there is an increase demand. We feel that with branches in India we could attract more customers since our brand is already known in India,” he said.

Rajapaksa said that he introduced the opening of cluster show rooms where one main town would have several shops thus giving the customer better reach. “This concept has given us tremendous strength and we hope to implement this concept in India as well,” he said.

The company which also exports nearly 15 % of their products is also looking at increasing their exports anticipating increase revenue. He said that last year they earned revenue of Rs. one billion and this year they are looking at increasing this by approximately 20 %. DSI main export markets are Australia, Germany, France, Middle East and the region which include 40 countries.

“In addition we also manufacture for other global brands.”In 1962, the late D Samson Rajapaksa JP, started the company mainly as a importer of footwear from UK, India and Japan. Due to export restrictions in the 1960 era the company started their own manufacturing and today the Group has 29 companies.

Over the past 50 years, the first and second generations have been instrumental towards the success and the market leadership the Group enjoys today.

DSI Group (Pvt) Ltd has a 20 percent stake in Kelani Valley Canneries (KVC) a subsidiary of CIC Agribusiness. KVC,is one of the well known process food brands in Sri Lanka.

As the increase in natural rubber production is a long term project with gestation period of seven years we have entered into a partnership with several large dry/wet rubber products manufacturing companies to plant rubber in Moneragala District, which is a highly under developed district in collaboration with government and other international funding agencies.

The second category of the group is tyres and tubes. Their products account for more than 70 percent of the local market share. “We are hoping to make further investment in this area and also increase our exports in this segment,” he said.