Building a legacy across generations and sectors: Sumathi Holdings

From pioneering roles in Sri Lanka’s entertainment and healthcare sectors to entering renewable energy and IT, Sumathi Holdings has evolved into a diverse conglomerate with a strong family legacy at its core. In an interview with Mirror Business, Group Chairperson and Managing Director Jagath Sumathipala shares insights into the company’s journey, the values driving its growth, and his vision for the future, including grooming the next generation to carry forward the Sumathi legacy.

Following are the excerpts of the interview:

Jagath Sumathipala Pic by Waruna Wanniarachchi

Q Could you share a brief snapshot of what Sumathi Holdings engages in?

Sumathi Holdings is the main holding company of the Sumathi Holdings Group. And we are in Health Care products, IT sector, Sports, and Entertainment, and into Renewable Energy at the moment. Those are the areas we are in now.

If you take Health Care, we are into Cardiovascular products. We have been in that business for over 25 years. 

Apart from Cardiovascular services, cancer, and other areas also we handle in health care sector. We are faring pretty well also. We had a hit also during the economic crisis. We overcame the problem and served the best quality products. 

IT – we have three companies. One is System Integration Services. The other is Retail IT, where we provide systems and Electronic Cash Register and other services. Another wing of Sumathi IT is, drone services, where we have a research unit as well. 

Third arm in the IT area is the software company. We have our own Software Company called the Mainframe. We provide solutions, specially for our group. That is about the IT sector. 

Entertainment is the other area we are keen at. We have been in the entertainment area for the last five decades. Specially sports entertainment. Also, one of the areas is film-producing. We as a group and family have so far produced six movies. Of which, five are award-winning movies, including international awards. 

At this juncture, we have entered into the international area, for which, we have just started a new company called – Sumathi Studios, that is purely for the international market. 

Actually, even though we have produced award-winning movies globally also, we have not got a market in the world. None of the Sri Lankan movies entered the world market. 

Of course, Sri Lankan movies got awards. No market as such in the selling context. The whole idea of Sumathi studio is to enter into that area, for which you need expertise and need to look into a different angle, especially the cost and technology. We got hold of the best expertise and we just started a movie recently. We revealed it on Tuesday. 

We are also planning to go international. My parents did it and now I, together with my two sons, have entered into that. We are incredibly happy to say it.

We are into hospitality as well, a restaurant business. We have been having the famous Great Wall restaurant for more than 35 years now. We provide excellent quality food, and name itself tell s it. 

Other than that, as a group, we do investment in the share market and properties. Also, we have a company to serve inter-company finances. 

In the energy sector, we entered Hydro power 15-years ago and two years ago entered into Solar plants and projects. We are nearing completion of our first five-megawatt plant in Horana. In one months’, time, we will be commissioning that as well. 

When there is an opportunity, we will grab it and take it. For the last four decades, we have been growing steadily and that is how it has been. 

The government should bring in the legislation and regularise all the businesses and the entertainment sector. There is a drop even in  the film industry. That has to be addressed

Q Share with us its beginning, how did it grow to its scale today?

My father entered the entertainment business as well as the film industry. He is a visionary person. He always told and guided me when I was a teenager. Always he says trust is no.1 to prosper in any business, and if you win the confidence of the customers, you can flourish and look after the employees. 

In that context, because especially when you’re into entertainment, you have to build trust. Film industry, again it is entertainment, that is how it started. 

My father had the passion for films, then my mother followed and that is how that started. Specially, the second movie got an  international award, as the ‘Best Movie’, at the Cannes Films festival. 

That really encouraged to do more in that area. After that, my mother did ‘Ganga Addara’, the highest award-winning movie in Sri Lanka. A very successful and beautiful movie. With that, we ded a lot CSR and community projects and so on. 

My father died when I was 19, and I had to enter the business. For my luck, anyway, my father had guided me on how to do business. My mother always gave her blessings as the chairperson.

I had to manage the entire group. Once I entered the business, we entered printing and publications. Within a year, we were into offset printing and straight away went into commercial printing. 

I was in gem business as well for a decade in 80’s, because that is my passion and I loved it. Also my father did gem business as well. I had the novelty and touch in it. The moment my father died, I set up the office in Chatham Street and while having the operations there, we were into gem business as well. I expanded into other areas – printing, publications, and trading businesses. 

Once we consolidated in those areas, in 90s, we shifted to this Bambalapitiya junction office. From this point onwards, we developed into other areas. One such area is the garment industry. When former President Premadasa came with a garment factory project, straightaway we entered that business as well even though it is not our area. We set up our factory in Laggala and we ran it for about nine-years and at the correct time we sold the business. It was not our area and we quickly went into that area, thanks to the encouragement and calling entrepreneurs get a feel of that industry. If not for that, I would have not gone into that. But with the facilities, quota system and the service to the community, that was the whole idea. This was far-off and I found it difficult to run it with the other business operations. I sold it to a foreign company. 

Now, this is 2025, two of my sons are also in the business. With them, my idea is to set it up for succession. You asked about the past, this is how we started. Of course, my brother also joined me in 1986, handling the printing and publications. We managed two sectors. in 2018, me and my brother split the business. In 2019, we grew up to a certain level and our children became qualified, educated and entered the business. Now, printing and publication is not under Sumathi Holdings. I am growing the business with my two children and taking to the next level. 

Q What are the sectors Sumathi had explored into, and why?

IT, healthcare, hospitality, entertainment, and energy sector – those are the areas we are in. 

IT is our main business, if you take sports and entertainment, we are into the latest technology. We need to be updated and upgrade into that level. IT is very important part in any business company. In 80’s itself, we recognized even some broadband connections. I set up a company called – Internet Service Provider (ISP). We even had an internet café, the second in Sri Lanka, and had for the longest period with the latest technology. It was extremely popular. With that we entered a company called ISP Lanka and also in our group we had the private TV channel for about 25-years. 

We were the first to go into digital but with Times, we dropped and ventured into the next level. Now, we are no more into that or into internet providing business. 

In 2000, I started Sumathi IT company, providing networking and specialty solutions. I wanted to get into that area because that is the future. Without that, we cannot survive. We wanted to have our own company. Earlier we were into trading. 

When my son joined nine years ago, he wanted to get into software. He set up a mainframe software company without depending on others. 

Software is an area we have to develop and improve every day. With that we can be in business, compete and be on the top, as where we are now. 

Hospitality is the the very reason I wanted to get into restaurant business. Great Wall is a very well-known restaurant for six decades. I got down the best chefs from Malaysia and China. Got the best quality food and all the ingredients we got from Singapore, Malaysia, and China. 

Our idea was to provide authentic, best Chinese food at a very reasonable price. We had a branch in Chatham Street also. Unfortunately, after the Central Bank bomb blast that had to be closed down. Thereafter, we stopped that business. That is the reason we got into hospitality business. Also it served our other companies too. We can entertain our partners and customers. We have been based in this place from 1990s and now it is about 35-years. 

Q Being in business for decades, in entertainment alone for five decades, what can you say about Sri Lanka’s business landscape? The goods and the areas for urgent attention?

People always love to get entertained. They would love to sit before the TV and get entertained. If you take the movie industry, we were getting down a lot of quality movies and being produced too. It was thriving too at one point, and it switched into TV, teledrama and so on. 

Entertainment is a very good area people always want to deal with. Even now, through the TV media, they do a lot of musical shows. That is needed. It is a particularly a good area.

The government should bring in the legislation and regularise all the businesses and the entertainment sector. There is a drop even in  the film industry. That has to be addressed. 

Of course, not only the government, the private sector too is ought to contribute to the cause. That is what we are trying to do, to capture the foreign market. 

We have a lot of talents. Good directors, good cinematographers, and the lacking part in the film industry is the equipmen. 

Even for the current movie (Rizana – the caged bird) we had hired two cameras from abroad. We cannot afford to buy and keep because there is not much quality movies produced. We want to enter into that area. This is a huge area. When you take the worldwide film industry, Sri Lanka is an ideal location to produce international movies, for the international market. People come and do shootings here. It is cheap, convenient, good location and everything is there. India is a huge market and they do lot of productions in Sri Lanka. But we can do much better. Localscan also start producing foreign movies, which should happen.       

Q To navigate the way forward, and drawing experience from your own company, what are the areas an entity must focus on to stay relevant in today’s world?

Energy sector is an area we should focus on as a group. Investment-wise we are seriously thinking about venturing towards solar expansion for our company.

As a country, now, we have a stabilised government. Economy has to be stabilised but it will take time. We cannot wait though. We as entrepreneurs should get foreign collaboration partnerships into areas that are necessary. 

Q Lastly, what message would like to give to those who are aspiring to enter the world of business?

Success in our group is my father, who guided me. My mother, let me manage the entire group. Similarly, now I passed it on to my two sons and got into the business. 

Also, we must serve the country. We can make money, but we need to have a country. We need to safeguard the country’s  heritage and the people. Ours is not a rich country. 

Our poverty levels are high. We must focus on those and support the community.