No privatisation of Sathosa, vows Rishad

The State-owned Lanka Sathosa islandwide store chain will continue to remain with the public and will not be divested, Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen vowed yesterday.

Launching Sri Lanka’s International Consumer Rights Day in the northern city of Vavuniya, he stressed that Sathosa was “a public asset”.

“Today I assure you that Lanka Sathosa will not be privatised and will not be allowed to go into private hands. I consider this an asset of the people. In fact we will transform Sathosa to become an efficient public institution, delivering great customer service excellence to Lankan consumers on par with any private supermarket chain in the country,” added Bathiudeen.

Lanka Sathosa is the single-largest State owned FMCG network in the country. The Government plans to expand the 311-strong Sathosa network to 500 outlets by 2016/’17.

Sathosa records showed that the monthly losses of Rs. 150 m incurred by Sathosa till recent times are now no more, with Lanka Sathosa financials beginning to show breakeven levels. 

“When it comes to consumer welfare, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies are one of the closest retailers to consumers in any country. The Sri Lankan FMCG market does not seem to go above $ 85 m per month, generally standing at around $ 80 m a month. In Sri Lanka, the highest monthly household cost is on food and beverages, followed by personal care products, and household care products. In fact 35% of monthly household expenditure of Sri Lanka is spent for food items,” said CAA Chairman Hasitha Thilakaratne.

“What is also important to note is that whether, it is food and beverages or personal care or household care products, if they are branded FMCG, they show higher sales. Realising the importance of brands in the market such as branded FMCG, we recently launched the first-ever national consumer rights event ‘Consumer Rewards Week’ in Sri Lanka which will end on 20 March. Sixty leading brands are offering 8,000 items on discount through 10,000 sales outlets across the country in this first-ever CAA initiative,” he added.