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Cey–Nor clinched the Sri Lanka Maubima Foundation’s Sooriya Singha Quality Award for the manufacture of boats, last week.
Cey-Nor Foundation is wholly owned by the Treasury, and essentially belongs to the Government and administered by it. Just one difference though. It is run within Government ARs and FRs, but managed efficiently and does not depend on state funds for its daily existence.
Cey-Nor not merely build boats, but exports its products to India and other European destinations as well.
"It was a notable first that any State controlled enterprise was an award winner at the Maubima Foundation event", Cey-Nor Foundation’s boss Rohan Jayasinghe said.
Cey-Nor has been in existence for around 45 years, and at no stage in its history has the organization achieved success such as that witnessed last week when it bagged this award for quality.
"State controlled enterprises are usually commercial non starters, how did your organization achieve success as seen last week?’ You know anything Government owned is bound to fail. And huge losses will eventually be the bottom line. That being what it is, how did you achieve success?", The Sunday Island asked Chairman Jayasinghe.
‘We were able to mobilize and accentuate enthusiasm of those working with us and through their steadfast application to duty and industriousness we built boats, first for local use and later for export. We have exported leisure boats to India, to a tourism entrepreneur. He was extremely pleased with our product. More apt was that we have kept abreast with technical advances in boat building and ensured delivery on time; more to the point our product passed stringent quality testing We competed at that level", he replied.
"Approximately 50 exporters and similarly, perhaps as many products were our competitive barometer and we came out tops in our field".
"You might assume we are into big time boat building. Not quite. Let me put it this way. We can handle expanded production but presently we are low key. Not that we lack expertise, but crucially, we are now looking for orders. Internationally. Initially we expect our reputation and good standing to precede the image we have built. You’re right. Going on reputation may not be enough to attract prospective customers. That being what it is, we are also aware no organization could prosper based on such low key applications. But financial limitations being what they are, we have to depend on foreign orders to be viable. True, we cannot exhibit at foreign locations, neither can we advertise internationally because of huge costs. We have to depend on our local friends living abroad to project expertise and garner custom", Jayasinghe explained.
