NJ Cooray Builders takes off: Herbert acquires blue chip clients & hotel contracts

(Excerpted from Jetwing Story and the life of Herbert Cooray by Shiromal Cooray)

The grand tour was Herbert’s last serious escapade. The responsibilities of adulthood, marriage and fatherhood could be denied no longer. The former teacher, insurance salesman and political activist now set his eyes firmly on the future. Following his father’s footsteps, he founded his own construction company called N.J. Cooray Builders, in November 1961.

His father had advised against it; construction was a difficult, stressful business, and clients were often reluctant to meet their bills when they fell due. Herbert was undeterred. Jeramius, realizing there was no point in further discussion, accepted his son’s decision and commenced teaching him the ins and outs of the trade. In a short while, the older man had convinced himself that his son ‘would make it one day’ and offered his unstinting support. Sadly, he would not live to see that day. Lucy Wijegoonawardena’s one regret was that the father did not live long enough to take pleasure in his son’s later success.

Herbert’s first office was a single room in the Singer building on Chatham Street in Fort. At that time Fort was Colombo’s principal business district, and rents were at a premium. The young entrepreneur, however, realized the importance of a good address. The single room served until 1963, by which time the business was on a firmer footing and the need for more hands on deck had become apparent.

N. J. Cooray Builders moved to a suite on the third floor of Macan Marker Building, an address even more prestigious than the previous one. Herbert’s first permanent employee was Anton Sellambram, a former Roman Catholic seminarian whose honesty and loyalty were supports his employer would depend on for more than 40 years. Anton served Herbert in a variety of capacities – secretary, personal assistant, clerk, book keeper, treasury manager, portfolio manager, etc.- until his retirement in 2009 at the age of 79.

Though nominally competitors in same business during those early years, Herbert and his father preferred to collaborate. Anton Sellambram would recall that the senior Cooray often borrowed the use of his secretarial services from Herbert, bringing his own invoices and letters to his son’s office for Anton and another employee, Mr. Ruberu to type up. The youthful assistants’ reward for their extra labours was pocket money for ice cream, generously supplied by Jeramius.

When Jeramius died in March 1964, Anton Sellambram was prominent among the mourners at his funeral. Though not officially his employee, Anton felt the same grief as the old man’s own loyal and experienced workers, all of whom had been assured of continuity in employment so long as their employer lived.

Jeramius, a gentle and kind person who was generous to a fault, cultivated loyalty by displaying it, and would go to great lengths to retain staff on his payroll even when times grew hard. His son thus received an early lesson in the value of retaining trained, loyal, efficient people – a lesson that Herbert Cooray’s heirs at Jetwing practice to this day.

Success however was still some years in the future. Herbert worked hard, but he was in a fiercely competitive business and his rivals were well established. He needed a strategy to lure business away from the big firms. Like many hungry young entrepreneurs he began leveraging the advantage of relatively low overheads to make his tenders more competitive. The stratagem worked; Herbert won a couple of large contracts, worked himself and his crews hard, did his best to meet his deadlines and soon found himself with the beginnings of a loyal clientele. Since he paid good wages on time and was a good judge of character, he also acquired a loyal workforce.

It was a risky business. In those days, the practice was for the contractor to pay labour and other costs out of his own pocket, being reimbursed periodically by the client. However, clients were often elusive when it was time to settle up; and it was often left to Herbert, racking his brains over a glass of arrack and a pack of Capstan cigarettes, to devise means that would enable him to meet the weekly wage bill on a Friday – in cash, as was also the practice of the trade. Somehow, he always found a way – it was a matter of pride with him that none of his staff was ever disappointed when payday came around, no matter what it might cost their employer to keep the commitment.

Loyalty to his associates had other costs, too. At his funeral many former clients recalled how when times were hard for them, Herbert had accepted less than full payment for projects they had commissioned. Indeed, he would often spend his own resources to complete a project for a financially embarrassed client, waiting months or even years afterward for reimbursement.

Another hallmark of his construction projects were good quality standards. He ensured the best quality materials were used and to this end traveled the length and breadth of the country to source them. He ensured that the proper quantities in the correct proportions were used, whether it was sand to cement ratios or quantity of steel for a building – despite the costs being naturally high.

Yet such ‘costs’ were a small price to pay for the reputation they earned, and N.J. Cooray Builders rapidly acquired a stable of blue-chip clients. Among its works were several well-known landmarks of the past: the Ceylon Tobacco Company offices and the factory at Kotahena, Shaw Wallace & Hedges’ building at Colpetty, the sprawling John Keells Headquarters, Point Stores, at Slave Island, and the huge government cement factory at Kankasanthurai.

In view of Herbert’s later involvement in tourism, it is interesting to note that N. J. Cooray Builders also built Seashells Hotel in Negombo and the elegant, Geoffrey Bawa-designed Triton Hotel (now Heritance Ahungalla) on the west coast as well as the Nilaveli Beach Hotel in Trincomalee.

Work now occupied most of Herbert’s time, sometimes at the expense of domestic commitments. Herbert and Josephine were now proud parents to a baby boy, Hiran. On one or two occasions, his mind on the problems of the day, he even forgot to collect his children from school, realizing what he had done only after he had returned home. He would then have to drive back to Colombo, a journey of half an hour, to make good his error.

In the end, the problem was solved by a move to Colombo, a decision that was further justified by his son’s increasing involvement in school sports. A house on Barnes Place was built and the Coorays moved in. Herbert reserved the ground floor for his office. The year was 1972.