Cargills (Ceylon) PLC

For most of its history, Cargills catered to the needs of a few wealthy customers in urban Colombo, Kandy, Nuwaraeliya, and Bandarawella. The company was modest in size. By 1982, it had approximately 300 employees in four locations, and annually grossed US $600,000. In 1983, the company decided to introduce the average Sri Lankan to the concept of a supermarket. Ranjit was instrumental in this effort, but ultimately disappointed that it reached so few consumers. “I was considering leaving the company by 1999,” he says. “Walking into a supermarket was perceived as something for the affluent. I felt at that time I would not be able to change the regular customer who shops at the wayside shops.”

Ranjit toyed with leaving the food world for a movie production business that was part of the Cargills holding company. During this period, he met a range of government ministers and officials, one of whom encouraged him to visit his rural farming electorate.

“Being an urban boy,” says Ranjit, “I thought I was going to see some beautiful farms like the tea estates in Sri Lanka. But when I went there, I was shaken and challenged by what I heard from the people I met. I faced farmers in an auditorium, who asked me tough questions. They asked why we could not help them with transportation, why they were not getting the proper price, why there was no market for them, and why they were having to borrow at high interest rates. I did not have good answers.”

“From that day onwards, I had to start from what I heard and what I saw.” He returned to Colombo, met with Cargills’ management and directors, and pitched them on developing an infrastructure to purchase farm products directly from Sri Lankans at a high enough price to improve their quality of living. The company responded by creating a pilot collection center. Now, 10 years later, there are nine such centers.