Cornel Perera no more

Pioneer of supermarkets in Sri Lanka and business leader Cornel Perera passed away on Sunday with his funeral held on Monday. 

His achievements include introducing the supermarket concept to Sri Lanka in 1978-79, was the Founder-Chairman of the Hilton Colombo; bailing-out the Grand Hotel, Nuwara Eliya, at President Jayewardene’s request; arranging Air Lanka flights to Saudi Arabia; and successfully implementing the World Bank-assisted conversion of the National Milk Board into a company structure.

He also built the Brandix Garment factory as Sun-Cornel Textile. 

Later, he co-founded the Sri Lanka-Japan Business-Cooperative Committee and chaired the Colombo City Hotels advisory committee, where he put into effect the minimum rate system for Colombo’s hotels. Perera was a lifetime member of New York’s Cornell Hotel Society.