A burning fire to succeed

In 1972, Sumi, a smart bright-eyed young lady with long braided hair, walked into my house with my friend Susil (Moonesinghe), just prior to their departure to Singapore. Susil had met the young lady while working at Radio Ceylon, fallen in love with her and they travelled to Singapore together. Sumi’s piercing eyes revealed to me that she clearly was not just any woman, but a well-honed, determined person with a burning fire to succeed in life.

On the several occasions we met in Singapore, Sumi indicated that she wished to return to Sri Lanka and was looking for a good break. Given that she held a BSc in Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Electronics, combined with an uncontrollable fire I had recognized in her, I had no hesitation in telling her that I would certainly give her a break in our Group.

On her return in 1974, both my brother Maha and I decided to take her into our company, along with Susil, although at the time, we were undecided on where to place her. Susil was elected on the Board as a Group Director and Sumi subsequently opted to start a commodity trading activity for the Group. She started with a bang; bagging a large sugar contract from the Kuok Brothers in her first foray, and the rest as they say is history.

One of the commodities she identified to trade in was milk powder, as it was then government-controlled. By destiny or otherwise, I met up with Graham Latimer, the representative for the New Zealand Dairy Board in Singapore, who indicated that they deal only on a Government-to-Government basis. At this point, I laughed and said, “No wonder the Australians are getting the better of you, being well represented in the market.”

He took my statement seriously and the next thing I knew, the entire New Zealand Dairy Board, headed by its Chairman Ron Greenhoff, and several others visited us in Colombo. They realized the wisdom in appointing representatives in this market, and of course Sumi was the ideal choice to head the trading operation for milk powder.

Due to her continuous success and the approach towards business, she was automatically elected to the Main Board as a Group Director. Thereafter, it was due to her untiring efforts that she converted a fledgling trading operation into an import and supply operation starting with a single buyer – the CWE. She grew the business into an independent producer, using external facilities to manufacture Anchor products. In no time, we entered the local market directly and took on the competing multinational competition head-on. The MNC at that time held nearly 52% of the market.

In a short time, Sumi and her team grew Anchor to becomes the undisputed leader in the branded milk food business the MNC competitor fell by the way side. Anchor, not surprisingly, became a household name for milk powder and dairy products and stood out as NZDB’s flagship business, even bigger than its UK branded milk powder business. When the NZDB requested taking control of the business which we owned, we agreed to their suggestion and decided to exit completely, without remaining as minority shareholders.

Sumi retired in January 1997, to deal with matters of State, home and children, but the example and the footprint she left behind are indelible.

(Rajendram Rajamahendran, who was Killi to all, was the other half of the Maharaja brothers who founded the conglomerate, The Capital Maharaja Organisation. The Group grew expansively under the leadership of the two brothers whose incisive partnership unfortunately ended with Killi’s untimely demise in 2021.)