Rienzi outlines future strategy for Touchwood
one of Sri Lanka’s most eminent corporate personalities recently assumed office as the Chairman of the agro-forestry management company, Touchwood. With over 50 years of experience as a practicing banker and having given stewardship to numerous blue-chip directorates in the capacity of Chairman, Wijethilleke brings to the table a vast amount of experience and corporate expertise to further leverage Touchwood’s position in the marketplace. A strong believer in the concept of sustainable business, Wijethilleke is a proponent of corporate entities going beyond the scope of commercial returns to positively impacting the environment as well as sustainably developing the community. In his long-standing career, Wijethilleke has espoused the need for corporates to “not only do well but also do good.” Having witnessed this sustainability spirit at Touchwood – a corporate that has made environmental stewardship and community development part and parcel of its business ethic – Wijethilleke has outlined a future strategy for Touchwood that impinges on fortifying the principles of sustainable business. Wijethilleke’s interest in sustainable business and Touchwood’s pioneering efforts in this regard, especially its efforts towards Triple Bottom-line Reporting and sustainable business practice has cemented this ‘best fit’ between a corporate legend and an enterprise that is possibly one of the most sustainable in Sri Lanka.
Under Wijethilleke’s short yet conspicuous leadership, Touchwood is set to make headway towards enhancing its operational processes. It has in particular complied with the stringent demands of the SA 8000 certification, a global social accountability standard for decent working conditions, developed and overseen by Human Rights, Convention on the Rights of the Child and various International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions. The award of SA 8000 is seen by Touchwood as an important step towards employee responsibility in that this third party verification of its workplace ethic also endorses Touchwood as a respon- sible and ethical producer to the global marketplace.
Touchwood has been following a concerted strategy of diversification and value creation whilst also continuing to place emphasis on its core business of agro-forestry management. It has strategically enhanced its acreage over the past three years by an exponential 400% and has diversified its agricultural crop portfolio to include high value agro outputs such as cinnamon, cloves, pepper, rubber, coconut, coffee, areca nut, pineapple, banana, papaya, mango, curry leaves and ‘kathurumurunga’. This crop diversification is an outcome of Touchwood’s vision to develop a ‘seed to shelf ’ strategy to further cement the long-term viability of its operations by developing revenue sources that are not dependent on the maturity of its plantations. This strategy for crop diversification is opportune especially in perspective of the burgeoning global market for aromatics, essential oils, high value fruits and spices. Plans are also underfoot to enter the growing global market for organic vegetables. In the area of aromatics and essences, Touchwood has successfully commissioned sandalwood distillation and vanilla processing.
As for its core business, Touchwood has recently acquired mature teak and mahogany plantations with an estimated biological asset value of Rs.500 million, assisting to further strengthen its asset to liability ratio as a risk mitigation measure. In addition to its existing plantations, Touchwood’s nurseries house over 500,000 high value plants at any given time and the company maintains a buffer stock of over three times the plantation value. Touchwood International, Touchwood Sri Lanka’s parent company has very recently secured a valuation of its plantations by the Knight Frank Valuation Company (UK) to further assure the asset value.
As a National Quality Award winner, Touchwood practices a range of sustainable agro techniques. Its pioneering efforts towards sustainably curtailing the ‘Shoot Borer’ pest attacks on mahogany is currently pending patent and has been hailed as a breakthrough in Shoot Borer control espe- cially in view of the fact that conventional methods only achieve a reduction to 30% as opposed to 1% achieved by Touchwood.
The company is in the process of obtaining the Organic Certification for its plantations. Touchwood’s flooring business is also on target for commissioning. The largest timber flooring factory in Sri Lanka is currently expected to commence production by April 2012 and will produce a range of wooden flooring options.
With strong leadership from Rienzi Wijethilleke, Touchwood is expected to witness robust growth in the medium term as growth strategies unfold. Wijethilleke’s strong corporate linkages and expertise, industry analysts forecast, will serve to strengthen Touchwood’s corporate reputation and operational outlook.