Daily News: 13/12/2005" BY NIMAL Perera, Wattala group correspondent
ROSHAN Gunathilake Chairman, Managing Director of Soar Technology (Pvt) Ltd. Welisara the only company in Sri Lanka which manufactures power generators for the export market has become an award winning businessman today.
"During the past nine years I have won so many awards including the International Quality Crown award at the 17th International Quality Crown convention held in London last week. I am very proud on it. This is a dream award for not only for me but the whole country." Roshan said.
Roshan (38), a young and enthusiastic Sri Lankan electronics engineer has set himself the task of earning much foreign exchange to the country by manufacturing power generators and exporting them to foreign countries.
Roshan, an old boy of St. Benedict's College, Kotahena, improved his inborn skills by watching his father who served as an airconditioning engineer at Walker and Sons.
As a school boy he created an automatic tea making machine to brew tea in seven minutes which won him the award of Junior Inventor of the Year 1986. He was also acclaimed the most popular designer of the year at a science exhibition.
Soon after leaving school Roshan had the opportunity of joining the National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERD) where he had the privilege of meeting people in the calibre of top engineers, doctors and best technical personnel.
His talents were spotted by then NERD Chairman Dr. A.N.S. Kulasinghe, the engineering genius and offered him a scholarship to study further in power generation, transmission and distribution. He also obtained a diploma in engineering science from the Technical Institute Katunayake specialising in electronics.
In 1993 he won the award for the most outstanding student from the City and Guilds institution in UK.
Roshan started his own business in 1992 under the name of Soar Technology which was incorporated as a limited liability company in 1996.
In the early stages he started manufacturing accessories for power generators such as control panels, synchronising panels and auto voltage regulators.
These accessories exported to several countries including Maldives and U.K. Roshan said these items are made by several other countries but have to be discarded when part turn faulty because no spare parts are available.
He has therefore met this shortcoming by manufacturing all the spares needed for the accessories to power generators and other items so that a part can be replaced instead of having to discard the whole unit.
"Assembling or manufacturing these items in countries like the UK is very costly. Vega Power Systems Ltd. UK one of the biggest manufacturers of power generators in the world entrusted this job to us as they have recognized the high quality of our technology and the skills. This is a big honour to our country," he said.
Today he has become one of the main suppliers of these items to the "Welland Engineering" in UK, a well-known name in power generator field in the world.
Roshan started to manufacture power generators in 2002 and exported them to Maldives and Nepal.
Today it has expanded to Indonesia, India and Japan. The latest order of 33 power generators worth US dollars 320,000 received from a Japanese company as a tsunami grant aid will be issued shortly.
All necessary machinery including an electronic workshop and a test laboratory have already been installed at the Welisara factory complex. Another modern factory is under construction at Nagoda, Kandana to expand the manufacturing of power generators.
Today his company employs a work force of 120 including officers and technicians. Another 40 employees are engaged on a casual basis. During the past nine years Roshan has won several awards and certificates for the generator field.
Among the host of awards he has won, the "TOYP" (Ten Outstanding Young Persons) award for the year 2000 was a key one.
Roshan is very keen on the "ISO 9001: 2000" certificate which he received very recently. Soar technology (Pvt) Ltd. was the first company to get ISO certificate for the generator field in Sri Lanka.
Roshan has won best locally developed electronic product award and best demonstration of the most recognised award given by the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka.
National level Bronze award under the theme of Achiever in Industrial Excellence conducted by Ceylon National Chamber of Industry, "FCCISL" award for western province, Silver award for national level and Bronze award for medium industry category were some awards which he has won.
Roshan Gunathilake a hard working young businessman who came forward by overcoming challenges has made Sri Lanka proud by manufacturing high quality power generators.
ROSHAN Gunathilake Chairman, Managing Director of Soar Technology (Pvt) Ltd. Welisara the only company in Sri Lanka which manufactures power generators for the export market has become an award winning businessman today.
"During the past nine years I have won so many awards including the International Quality Crown award at the 17th International Quality Crown convention held in London last week. I am very proud on it. This is a dream award for not only for me but the whole country." Roshan said.
Roshan (38), a young and enthusiastic Sri Lankan electronics engineer has set himself the task of earning much foreign exchange to the country by manufacturing power generators and exporting them to foreign countries.
Roshan, an old boy of St. Benedict's College, Kotahena, improved his inborn skills by watching his father who served as an airconditioning engineer at Walker and Sons.
As a school boy he created an automatic tea making machine to brew tea in seven minutes which won him the award of Junior Inventor of the Year 1986. He was also acclaimed the most popular designer of the year at a science exhibition.
Soon after leaving school Roshan had the opportunity of joining the National Engineering Research and Development Centre (NERD) where he had the privilege of meeting people in the calibre of top engineers, doctors and best technical personnel.
His talents were spotted by then NERD Chairman Dr. A.N.S. Kulasinghe, the engineering genius and offered him a scholarship to study further in power generation, transmission and distribution. He also obtained a diploma in engineering science from the Technical Institute Katunayake specialising in electronics.
In 1993 he won the award for the most outstanding student from the City and Guilds institution in UK.
Roshan started his own business in 1992 under the name of Soar Technology which was incorporated as a limited liability company in 1996.
In the early stages he started manufacturing accessories for power generators such as control panels, synchronising panels and auto voltage regulators.
These accessories exported to several countries including Maldives and U.K. Roshan said these items are made by several other countries but have to be discarded when part turn faulty because no spare parts are available.
He has therefore met this shortcoming by manufacturing all the spares needed for the accessories to power generators and other items so that a part can be replaced instead of having to discard the whole unit.
"Assembling or manufacturing these items in countries like the UK is very costly. Vega Power Systems Ltd. UK one of the biggest manufacturers of power generators in the world entrusted this job to us as they have recognized the high quality of our technology and the skills. This is a big honour to our country," he said.
Today he has become one of the main suppliers of these items to the "Welland Engineering" in UK, a well-known name in power generator field in the world.
Roshan started to manufacture power generators in 2002 and exported them to Maldives and Nepal.
Today it has expanded to Indonesia, India and Japan. The latest order of 33 power generators worth US dollars 320,000 received from a Japanese company as a tsunami grant aid will be issued shortly.
All necessary machinery including an electronic workshop and a test laboratory have already been installed at the Welisara factory complex. Another modern factory is under construction at Nagoda, Kandana to expand the manufacturing of power generators.
Today his company employs a work force of 120 including officers and technicians. Another 40 employees are engaged on a casual basis. During the past nine years Roshan has won several awards and certificates for the generator field.
Among the host of awards he has won, the "TOYP" (Ten Outstanding Young Persons) award for the year 2000 was a key one.
Roshan is very keen on the "ISO 9001: 2000" certificate which he received very recently. Soar technology (Pvt) Ltd. was the first company to get ISO certificate for the generator field in Sri Lanka.
Roshan has won best locally developed electronic product award and best demonstration of the most recognised award given by the Institute of Engineers, Sri Lanka.
National level Bronze award under the theme of Achiever in Industrial Excellence conducted by Ceylon National Chamber of Industry, "FCCISL" award for western province, Silver award for national level and Bronze award for medium industry category were some awards which he has won.
Roshan Gunathilake a hard working young businessman who came forward by overcoming challenges has made Sri Lanka proud by manufacturing high quality power generators.
