Lankan Industry Ministry sleek, focused: Glowing praise from TESCO

Sri Lanka’s Industry and Commerce Ministry and its Department of Commerce have earned glowing praise from the world’s third largest retailer, TESCO. “I am impressed with the professionalism of Sri Lanka’s Industry Ministry and its DoC.

“From day one of our arrival, everything went smoothly with top coordination and we achieved our mission in Colombo quickly thanks to their sleek professionalism and organisational focus of DoC,” praised the highly pleased Mark Kenneth Astley, the Haryana based General Manager of Tesco Hardlines, under Tesco International Sourcing, Hong Kong, last week.

Astley was debriefing Rishad Bathiudeen, the Minister of Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka, on his successful one-to-one direct buyer meetings for TESCO with Sri Lankan exporters. This is the first such initiative by TESCO in Sri Lanka.

Facilitated by the Department of Commerce (DoC), TESCO’s Astley began his one-to-one meetings with Sri Lankan exporters on 5 December and continued through 6 December. “In this round one, we have picked 23 Sri Lankan exporters in our hard-lines categories. We are returning to Sri Lanka in 2013’s first quarter for round two of our one-to-ones,” Astley revealed.

He also hinted at TESCO’s possible future expansion in Sri Lanka: “We need a vertically integrated supply-chain from Sri Lanka.” Astley did not elaborate on his intentions any further.

TESCO, with revenues of $ 94 billion (2011), is the world’s third largest listed retailer with 6,300 stores and 500,000 employees across 14 countries, and is also the UK’s largest supermarket chain, commanding more than 30% of British market share.  

“I am pleased about your round one success in Sri Lanka. Your interest in Sri Lanka is a sign of the high quality of Sri Lankan products and the export priority under our Government’s ‘Mahinda Chinthana’ vision,” said Bathiudeen, in response to Astley. “The ministry and its DoC will do its best in securing your purchase needs and we are here to help you succeed in Sri Lanka,” Bathiudeen assured.

“Previously, our growth came from the UK but now we see new growth coming from the East –South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, China etc. as our stores in these markets report more sales. Therefore we need to source more products and Sri Lanka is one South Asian country we are now closely studying among 33 new sourcing destinations,” Astley explained.

“We are looking for additional 15 to 20 million pounds ($ 32 million) product sourcing from Sri Lanka in items such as ceramics, plastics, wood products and coir, but not apparel or garment or even food items. We already purchase apparel from Sri Lanka for the value of $ 100 million every year.”