THE ORIGINS OF LALITHA
There’s a story behind every evolving dream- and this, is ours. Read on to discover the origins of brand Lalitha, the thinking behind our ethos and how we grew into an iconic gold house with a heritage that spans decades.
THE ORIGINS OF LALITHA
Mr. M. Shanmuga Velautham arrived in Colombo Sri Lanka from the South of India in the late 40’s with a little more than positive foresight and an ambitious spirit. His son Mr.M.S.Kandasamy, a driven individual even at a very young age, worked as an apprentice at the jewellery shops in Sea Street Pettah, gaining knowledge and experience and making notes on how not to run a business when he opens his own operation! The family lived modestly, though the young Kandasamy stayed focused and determined. The story goes, that the driven young man had told his mother that one day he wanted to treat himself to a meal at an upscale restaurant in Colombo, with a table right under the fan! Such was his zeal and aspiration.
With a passion to provide something a little different to what the Jewellery buyers of Colombo were used to at the time, Mr.Kandasamy founded Lalitha Jewellers on the 3rd of Sepetember 1951 at a small rented premises on Sea Street. A born marketer at his core, the young man knew from the onset that he needed to do things differently from his peers if he wanted to gain a loyal clientele and make a name for himself in Gold business.
WHY WE DO WHAT WE DO
“Doing things differently” to Mr.Kandasamy didn’t mean polishing up superficial appearances or offering freebies and discounted offers. He understood very early on, that a successful business was built on a value system and he valued integrity and trustworthiness above all else. He was ethical in all his dealings. The Lalitha ethos, to this day, is based on this principle of honesty. Gold, being the lifelong investment that it is, needed to be traded with transparency and maintaining the utmost quality standards.
Customer service that went over and above the norm, also set Lalitha apart from the rest. Meals that were cooked in bulk for the large staff at the shop was sometimes shared among customers and their families who spent many hours choosing and buying jewellery!
When the business began in the 50’s Lalitha was not a gold manufacturer, but a trader, dependent on acquiring and reselling jewellery made by other manufacturers. This brought in its own set of problems, from not having complete control over what was sold, to not having the freedom to experiment with design and development. The need to offer more attention to detail, in terms of their design and offerings led to the expansion of the Lalitha brand we see today.
BUILDING A BRAND, CRAFTING A LEGACY
In 1985, what was essentially a trading operation was wholly transitioned into a manufacturing and trading company by Mr.Sellakumar Kandasamy, the current Managing Director of Lalitha. What started off as a single shop at No.99 Sea Street, expanded into four adjoining shops and became 105 Lalitha- the spacious and instantly recognisable showroom that it is today. This was also the time that Lalitha opened its offshore branch in Tamil Nadu, India.
Manufacturing gave the business the edge that they had hitherto lacked, though their loyal clientele stayed true to the company because of their commitment to being honest and going the extra mile for their customers.
Sellakumar spent most of his teenage years learning the ropes of the business and spending his afterschool hours at the Sea Street showroom. From serving the customers chilled beverages, to wiping the tables and bringing down the boxes of jewellery to display to potential customers, he was involved in all the smaller aspects of the business, getting a clear picture of how the operation really worked.
The iconic aesthetic of Lalitha began to slowly take shape from this time onwards. In ’95 the brand launched its upscale showroom in a prime location in Colombo 03, opening its doors to a newer, more discerning customer, and shifting its focus to value addition, signature handcrafted ethnic jewellery and bespoke pieces. The expansion let the brand achieve what it couldn’t before in terms of volume and technology, but preserved what was always the fabric of the business- personal attention to detail in the design and craftsmanship of the gold pieces.