CHANDANALEPA FACTORY VISIT

January 22, 2019

CHANDANALEPA FACTORY VISIT

CHANDANALEPA FACTORY VISIT

Hello! We are six volunteers in Inzpire 12.0 Project for AIESEC in Sri Lanka. In this project, we are visiting serval companies and thanks to this opportunity, we had the chance to interview the CEO of Chandanalepa company Mr. Phillip Nehri Mullegama hence we have a better understanding of its business and its environment and some fundamental knowledge of the entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka. The following shows what we learnt during this visit.

It’s a very important for Sri Lanka to have a company like Chandalalepe, producing such amazing products, 100% natural and good for the skin and from here starts the magic “it started by a bike to a 3 wheeler then to a van eventually the first cosmetic company in Sri Lanka”, Said Mr. Phillip Nehri Mullegama. 25 years ago Dr. R.J Jayarathne had a small shop in Veeyanjoda selling an unnamed product that whiten the skin, unfortunately no one wanted to buy something anonymous, but his self-confidence and the belief in what his product efficiency, led him to a great success.

“Take it for free I don’t want money, just try it…” said Dr. R.J Jayarathne, he was sure that the people who will use it will come back to look for it, he has the necessary courage to move on to the next step, the people who refused to take at the first place came back also to buy it.

We learnt that the company’s values are very important ingredients for a successful business. The most important value for Chandalalepe, as the CEO said, is honesty. They use 100% natural oil to make their products, claim what they give without exaggeration and don’t put violent advertising. Hence they built a bond of trust with their customers and made the brand of the company trustworthy. Also, the transparency of the company plays a big part to win customers loyalty. We as visitors could see the whole process of manufacturing the products. The relationship between the company and its employees plays a big role in keeping the high quality of production while the company grows internationally, Chandalalepe has over 120 employees and only few have left the company since they have joined “We make this place as their second home” said Mr.Phillip.

After the interview with Mr. Phillip we walked around the facility and took a look at the different steps of producing and the offices. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures from the inside, which is understandable, since they have a highly developed technology; they recycle almost all their waste into water to grow plants and into organic compost. The company also has an impressive rate of sustainable power usage which is currently 30% due to solar power panels and they are planning to increase it up to 100%.

In conclusion we think that the key elements of Chandalepe’s success is trustworthiness and not giving up. Even though the company is very successful it still has to fight every day its own battles against cheaper import products and other market forces. However, in our opinion with such an amazing leader as Mr. Phillip, this company will survive and make many impacts on the Sri Lankan economy and people.