By Jithendra Antonio
Q: Could you briefly tell us about the current business portfolio of LAUGFS Holdings?
A: Our Company was founded in 1995, and LAUGFS has expanded across 20 industries within just 20 years, which I believe is a tremendous achievement for a simple home grown business.
We are mostly seen as an energy conglomerate due to our strong presence in Sri Lanka and overseas in a number of energy related businesses. These include our LPG downstream activities, petroleum retailing, international LPG logistics as well as renewable energy solutions. Our recent acquisition of one of the largest LPG players in Bangladesh has made us the first Sri Lankan energy conglomerate to become a multinational.
But apart from the Power & Energy sector, we also have a strong presence in Retail & Consumer, Industrial/Manufacturing, Services, Leisure and the Real Estate sectors, with a group annual turnover exceeding Rs.28 billion.
Within our businesses, we provide employment to over 4,000 Sri Lankans and have created many more employment opportunities through our value chain. Today LAUGFS is a trusted name in Sri Lanka.
Q: What drove you to start 'LAUGFS' as an enterprise and emerge as a businessman?
A: The time I spent at Sri Jayewardenepura University in the early 1980s studying for my BSc degree, helped me gain a lot of theoretical knowledge in business management. But I was always curious and was keen to gain practical exposure while applying what I learned.
Those days in our country, most graduates want to be employed in the public sector, either in a bank or a State department, mostly because it offered job security. But I was not interested in settling with that, and dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur and working for myself. The few years I spent working for the Ceylon Shipping Corporation, I spent as much time as possible on learning and gaining practical experience.
Equipped with this knowledge and experience, I started a small freight forwarding company in 1990. I grew up in a rural village and didn't have any political or financial clout. So during this time, I worked on building a network and worked hard to build confidence in people as a capable entrepreneur.
In 1995, I was fortunate to have a few like-minded friends around me, with whom I ventured into the auto gas conversion de Silva, our Managing Director, who has been an immense strength right throughout our 20 year journey. We started our first auto gas conversion workshop and filling station in Wattala. It revolutionized the automobile industry in the country and became very much talked about. This became the inception of LAUGFS and was the first step of a long journey that led us to where we are today.
Although it has since been 20 years, the pioneering spirit we had in 1995 is firmly ingrained in our work culture, the way we work and our approach to business even to this day.
Q: How did 'LAUGFS' as it stands grow as a conglomerate?
A: There are a few factors that have helped ignite our rapid growth. One is the importance we've always placed on building 'trust'; with our customers, employees, business partners and all our stakeholders. For example, we've always had an uncompromising approach to quality, have continuously focused on improving our service standards and have always searched for ways to enhance customer value, which have helped us to build a strong brand that is trusted by our millions of consumers. The family culture we have at LAUGFS has helped us build a closer relationship with our staff and win their loyalty and trust. We've always focused on delivering continued value to our shareholders, who have placed their trust and invested in us. This has been an important ingredient of our success.
We've also worked with a strong desire to be a pioneer and to drive growth through innovation. This is part of our internal culture, and it's also reflected in our businesses.
We started operations in 1995 by introducing the pioneering concept of auto gas conversion to the local market. Today, we have set up the first Tribology Park in Sri Lankan with heavy investments to bring in cutting-edge tribology solutions that are especially customized to our local conditions. We promote this pioneering and entrepreneurial approach among our staff as well, to ensure it is carried forward for many more years to come.
Thilak de Silva, our Managing Director and I have had to overcome a lot of hardships along the way to build LAUGFS into what it is today. We call Thilak 'The Mechanic', because of his uncanny ability to find a solution to any challenge and somehow turnaround any difficult situation. We've always tackled every challenge with a lot of resilience and have always fought for what we believe is right and just. I think my upbringing in a rural village had conditioned me to face these challenges. I have already faced many hardship growing up, so this was not something new to me. I've also learned as a child to survive with whatever little resources available and this learning has been immensely helpful in those early days of our business operations. We've always worked with a deep passion for what we do, and feel fortunate to have an equally passionate team around us.
As a homegrown business, we've always taken pride in our Sri Lankan identity. We start work every day with the national anthem. We work with the firm belief that Sri Lanka has the resources and the capabilities to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with international businesses. We've demonstrated this through many of our companies. In 2001, LAUGFS Gas started operations competing with a strong multinational, and today it has over 30% market share in the LPG industry and is a listed company with diversified interests and revenue of over Rs.11.5 billion. LAUGFS Oil is another good example, where it has become the first local lubricants brand to successfully compete with strong international players. Now, we want to take this Sri Lankan brand to a global platform. Our recent acquisition of one of the largest LPG distributors in Bangladesh is just the beginning of this journey. We are proud of our Sri Lankan roots, and firmly believe in contributing towards our nation as a responsible business.
Q: Could you elaborate more on why you think LAUGFS is a pioneering brand in Sri Lanka?
A: I think this pioneering spirit is evident from the inception of LAUGFS. As I mentioned earlier, we began our businesses with the revolutionary auto gas conversion company; Gas Auto Lanka (Pvt) Ltd., in 1995. This brought in a novel concept to the Sri Lankan motorist, introducing LPG as a cleaner and more efficient alternative to traditional fuel.
In 2000, LAUGFS Supermarket was the first to introduce the 24 hour retailing concept to the local consumer. In 2001, LAUGFS Gas became the first Sri Lankan company to enter the LPG downstream industry. LAUGFS Eco Sri pioneered air quality management in the country by opening Sri Lanka's first ever Vehicle Emission Testing Centre in Gampaha during 2008. LAUGFS Lubricants introduced LAUGFS Oil as the first Sri Lankan Lubricants brand, while it also became the first local company to set up a lubricant manufacturing plant in the country this year.
As we complete 20 years in business this year, I'm proud to say that we also became the first Sri Lankan energy conglomerate to become a multi-national.
Q: You have won numerous recognition including the Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the Year Platinum Award by FCCISL and the Award of Excellence by COYLE.
Any Accolades that 'LAUGFS' won for industry success?
A: LAUGFS businesses have won many awards and accolades in recognition of operational excellence, as well as sustainability efforts.
Some of the key recognitions would include being declared winner of the Diversified Group Companies Sector at the National Business Excellence Awards and being recognized as the Most Respected Business for Nation Mindedness by LMD. LAUGFS Gas has been presented with the coveted National Quality Award by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution and has also been recognized as one of the Top Ten Achievers of Industrial Excellence.
LAUGFS Supermarket chain has been named the Retailer of the Year (Supermarkets) at the ARC Awards for Retail Excellence and was also awarded the Most Innovative Retail Concept of the Year at the Asian Leadership Awards. LAUGFS Gas PLC, has been presented with Gold Awards at both National Business Excellence Awards and the CA Annual Reports Awards for two consecutive years. It has been recognized at the Best Corporate Citizen - Sustainability Awards by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for it sustainability efforts, while also being awarded Platinum Awards at the Vision Awards 2014 in recognition of its Annual Reports for reporting excellence. Our LAUGFS Corporate IT has also won the Gold Award at the National Best Quality ICT Awards for our in-house developed financial applications.
These are some of the many recognition we've received throughout the years. As a team, we are very proud of our achievements, and make a point of celebrating even the smallest accomplishment together as a family.
Q: What are the future plans for 'LAUGFS'?
A: We have plans to aggressively expand our energy businesses across the region and beyond. We have already taken the first steps in this direction.
Our recent acquisition of Petredec Elpiji, one of the largest LPG players in Bangladesh has provided us with an entry point to one of the largest emerging LPG markets in the world. Not only will this help us to put Sri Lanka in the global energy map, but it will also help us to strengthen our position as an energy conglo-merate within the region. The recent acquisition of our second LPG vessel – Gas Success - will help further strengthen our vessel fleet in line with our growth plans for the region, providing international logistics support for the growing LPG demand in the region. Plans are also underway to build one of the largest LPG storage facilities in the region at Hambantota Port area. This will act as a central LPG storage hub for the entire region, from which the LAUGFS vessels would deliver LPG to other international markets in the region.
This year, LAUGFS Power acquired Anorchi Lanka (Pvt) Ltd and Irish Eco Power Lanka (Pvt)., Ltd, in a bid to set up the largest solar power project in the country, which will be commissioned soon. We see tremendous potential in renewable energy in years to come, and have plans to further expand into larger scale generation of wind and hydro power with longer term plans to extend into South and South East Asia.
Apart from our power and energy busin-esses, this aggressive expansion strategy could be seen across many of our other businesses as well. For example, we have plans to rapidly expand in the leisure sector, with our second luxury resort, Anantaya Passekudah, soon to be launched along the beautiful East Coast of Sri Lanka. Plans are also in progress for the development of our third and possibly the largest luxury resort project so far, along the South Western Coast at Waskaduwa.
"We have always been proud of our Sri Lankan roots. We are a homegrown business, and we'll always bear this in mind, even as we expand globally as a multinational. Our values will remain unchanged and our responsibility towards our country will continue to be a priority. We will always be the "Sri Lankan" multinational," he concluded.
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