“Curb gray market, allow credible business practices strive”

Mahesh Wijewardene

Take measures to curb the gray market and support the credible ethical business practices that are done by reputed corporates, Singer (Sri Lanka) Chief Executive Officer Mahesh Wijewardene urged, speaking to Daily News Business on the sidelines of the Singer vivo launch held in Colombo recently.

“The government and authorities must make sure that the legitimate companies survive and if they want duties and government revenue to go up, support the organized sector and not give room for the gray market,” he opined.

Wijewardene said the company did very well in the two pandemic years.

“There was a huge demand for digital devices, computers and phones because of the need for connectivity and a lot of kitchen appliances got sold.”

He however said the financial crisis was an entirely different situation with nothing working in favor of the industry with exchange devaluation to import restrictions, buying power reduction, forex crisis, increased duties and the interest rates reaching 30%, but they somehow survived that year. He said they were now seeing some relief of gradual improvement in the consumer appetite in buying certain things, but still the disposable income is a huge issue because consumer priorities are different, and the public won’t buy durable goods before spending for food , clothing and accommodation.

“So hopefully with interest rates and inflation coming down we might see a slight pickup in our sector also.”

Wijewardene therefore expressed optimism that after about September, October with the harvest income also coming into the economy and with the interest rates coming down, people will start consuming more. He said in retail the top line is the priority and emphasized the need to keep growing the top line and make sure that they have a reasonable margin and the key issue is to somehow find ways of giving customer solutions in terms of affordability and Singer Sri Lanka was promoting a higher purchase scheme to address the issue.