Lanka Sathosa to mushroom with 8,000 retail franchise outlets

Tuesday, 21 March 2017 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

To open 50 new branches next week with President and PM
Targets opening 500 branches by end of 2017 and then expanding via retail franchise outlets

Ahead of the April New Year spending spree, Lanka Sathosa will open 50 new outlets across the country next week and aims to hit 8,000 retail franchises by the end of the year, the Industry and Commerce Ministry said in a statement yesterday.

The 50 new outlets to be opened on 28 March will be inaugurated by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

“I am pleased to announce that on 28 March, 50 new and fully-equipped Lanka Sathosa outlets across Sri Lanka will be opened by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe,” Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen was quoted as saying in the statement released by his ministry.

Minister Bathiudeen was addressing the Cooperatives Provincial Ministers’ Summit at the BMICH.

“When I took over, Lanka Sathosa was faced with issues of lack of computerisation and non-availability of the latest stock updates for top managers. Accounts too were lagging. As a result we started restructuring work within the system with consultancy by the international firm KPMG. Now we have come to the final phase of island-wide Lanka Sathosa network computerisation and by July 2017 it will be complete. An ERP system will run on this,” said Minister Bathiudeen

“Most importantly, we have decided to speed up Sathosa network expansion. The total number of Lanka Sathosa outlets planned is 500 and by the end of this year we will activate all 500. Once we complete 500 outlets by the end of 2017, we will stop Lanka Sathosa outlet network expansion. Thereafter we will expand in a new way. We will be establishing Lanka Sathosa retail franchises with existing private grocery shops and usual retailers. The total number of such planned retail franchises across the country is 8,000.”

At present, Lanka Sathosa has 325 outlets across Sri Lanka reporting an annual network turnover of Rs. 30 billion. Among other important projects in its restructure are the installation of 125 new CCTV systems, the setting up of five laboratories and installation of a human resource information system to manage its 3,500 employees island-wide.