Legend of the Southern Philanthropist and Entrepreneur – C.A Harischandra
“When I first started work, Sir summoned me to him, gave me some money and said, give this hundred rupees to Madam. On the way to the house, I counted the money and found there was an extra ten rupees among the notes he had given me.
I handed the Rs.110 to madam and told her even though Sir said there was hundred rupees, there is 110 here. Madam took the money with a knowing smile on her face. Later, Sir called me and said he had done it for two reasons.
One, to see if I would count the money, the other, he said, I should be able to realise for myself”.
“When we travelled from Matara to Colombo, Sir would buy bananas to eat on the way. He would distribute the bananas among us, collect the banana peels, stop the vehicle and feed them to a cow by the side of the road. He never liked wasting anything.
“One day when Sir noticed I didn’t wear a wristwatch he removed the wristwatch on his hand and gave it to me and said I could keep it. I didn’t want to take it from him and said “But this is Sir’s watch”. He insisted I keep it and assured me he could easily find an old watch to wear, says D.C. Peris, former Manager.
“Sir”, was C.A. Harischandra, the founder of one of the premier food manufacturing companies in the country today, Harischandra Mills Limited.
Situated in the deep South the factory which retains traditional methods of manufacturing while adhering to international standards, at present, provides employment to over 1,000 workers.
The history of the company can be traced back to 1938, when, even though he could easily have secured a high-paying job in the government service with his degree in economics from the University of Colombo, C.A Harischandra returned to his hometown to begin a business on his own.
Investing his entire fortune of Rs. 500 on a rice mill he begins to mill rice for two cents a bushel. Business rockets sky high in next to no time. But not for long. Soon his rivals reduce their milling charges and begin to mill the rice for one cent a bushel.
He encounters such great losses that, closing the mill becomes inevitable. But, undaunted, he bounces back into business in 1942 when he gets the contract to mill rice for the government during the zenith of the second world war.
Today, Managing Director, Senaka Samarasinghe, a third generation “Harischandra” keeps the torches of the company still burning as bright as they were, when first lit by his grandfather, sixty-two years ago.
He fondly recalls C.A Harischandra as not only one of the pioneer entrepreneurs of the South but also as a great philanthropist.
With justifiable pride Senaka says Harischandra Mills Limited was the first company to have allotted 40% of its shares to its employees, way back in 1959.
What was begun as a business of milling rice, kurakkan and other grains soon expanded into other fields including the manufacture of a wide variety of soaps as well as food ranging from coffee to curry powder, noodles to thalaguli, papadam to table salt.
Having become a household name within a few years the company soon had something for everybody living from Dondra Head in the South to Point Pedro in the North.
Treacle for the Southerner to eat with curd, thala thel for their brethren in Jaffna, String Hopper flour, instant thosa mixes and canned food for the career woman, and locally manufactured soap to meet the needs of housewives.
The company whose mission is to “provide the public with a variety of high quality products and to maintain increasing returns to shareholders” has undoubtedly come a long way from its inception in 1942 when a young man returned to his village to strike out on his own as an entrepreneur.
