Founder members of Sri Lanka Retailers’ Association hold inaugural meeting

Seated from left: Niloufer Anverally - MD of Cotton Collection; Dinesh Perera - Deputy Director Abans Plc/ Asst. Secretary SLRA; Murali Prakash - Group MD/CEO Taprobane Group/Vice President SLRA; Hussain Sadique - Chairman SLRA/Deputy MD Hameedia Group; Suresh Perera – Principal - Tax and Regulatory, KPMG; Ajith Amarasekara - CEO Swarnamahal Jewellers/Asst. Treasurer SLRA; Kaushalya Perera - Director D. Samson  & Sons/Sector Chair – SLRA footwear; Sidath Kodikara - CEO Cargills Foods Company/Vice President SLRA; Charitha Subasinghe - CEO Jaykay Marketing Services (Keells Super/Treasurer SLRA)

Standing from left: Saman Lal - Group Financial Controller, Thilakawardhana Textiles; Nasser Majeed - CEO Softlogic Retail; Rizwi Thaha - CEO Cool Planet/Sector Chair – SLRA fashion; Infiyaz Ali – GM - Retail Healthguard Pharmacy Ltd/General Secretary SLRA; Haroos Razak - Consultant Hameedia; Asoka Pieris - Group CEO Singer Sri Lanka Plc/Sector Chair SLRA durables; Leonard Perera – Retailers - Connect of SLRA; Udara Karunatilleke - CEO Vogue Jewellers; Anuruddha Perera - Head of Customer Relations, Kandy Selection; Sajeewa Ranasinghe - CEO Ceylon Leather Products Plc; Ahmed Hanafi - AGM Nolimitand; and Lahiru Pathmalal - Director Co-founder Takas.lk

The inaugural Founder Membership meeting of the Sri Lanka Retailers’ Association (SLRA) was held recently at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC). 

SLRA Chairman and the Executive Committee appointed the CCC as the SLRA Secretariat and ruled for it to provide secretarial services to the association. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between SLRA and CCC in this regard prior to the founder meeting.

The SLRA Executive Committee (ExCo), previously operating on an interim basis, was confirmed and ratified by the SLRA founder membership at the meeting. The SLRA Board of Directors/Executive Committee comprises office bearers of the association namely Chairman/President Hussain Sadique, Vice President Sidath Kodikara; Vice President Murali Prakash; Treasurer Charitha Subasinghe; General Secretary Infiyaz Ali; Asst. Secretary Dinesh Perera and Asst. Treasurer Ajith Amarasekera.

Furthermore, the SLRA Chairman and Executive Committee appointed Retail Sector Chairpersons to the Association, namely Asoka Pieris - Sector Chair – SLRA durables, Rizwi Thaha - Sector Chair - SLRA fashion; and Kaushalya Perera - Sector Chair – SLRA footwear.

The SLRA Budget proposals, which focus on promoting Sri Lanka as a retail hub and planning to stage a Colombo shopping festival similar to those held in Dubai, Singapore and Malaysia, were presented at the meeting facilitated by Suresh Perera, Principal - Tax and Regulatory of KPMG for which suggestions and feedback was received from the founder members of the association. 

Krishan Balendra supported the fact that focusing on these two notions and aspects linked to them would provide great exposure to the retail industry in Sri Lanka. The SLRA officials will meet the Minister of Finance to submit their budget proposal which includes the Sri Lanka Retail Hub project.

SLRA Vice President Sidath Kodikara indicated that the retail attractiveness in Sri Lanka had enriched as per the GRDI (Global Retailers’ Development Index). He further assured that the association would continuously support the common interests of its members while further improving the retail standards of the country.

SLRA envisages holding the Sri Lanka Retail Forum in 2017 and thereafter staging it as an annual calendar event of the association with the participation of guest foreign speakers and delegates to advance the cause of the association.

SLRA was formed as an association in October 2015 and was incorporated in June 2016 as a Company Limited by Guarantee. The objective of this association will be to harness the resources of the Organised Retail industry to a common platform to promote and facilitate futuristic innovation, growth and global outreach. SLRA has an ambitious vision to ‘Achieve Retail Excellence’ and it strives to be the ‘Voice of the Retail industry in Sri Lanka’.

The SLRA Executive Committee meets on the second Thursday of every month to discuss, plan and review their way forward in order to develop retailing standards in Sri Lanka, and to bring together the resources of an organised retail industry onto a single platform in a bid to nourish and promote innovation, growth and the global reach of the industry.

Members of the retail industry are invited to participate in the association’s activities. For more information, please contact Sri Lanka Retailers’ Association Secretariat Gillian Nugara, Asst. Secretary General of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, No. 50, Nawam Mawatha Colombo 02. Call 0115 588881 or email [email protected].