Brothers in arms

How the Amalean family made MAS Holdings Sri Lanka's biggest garment manufacturer - and one of the industry's best corporate citizens.

Janet Paskin | March 2008 issue

In the coming years, though, the changing landscape of global trade will challenge the three Amalean brothers who run MAS, and in fact, the Sri Lankan garment industry as a whole. The expiration of the Multi-Fiber Agreement—the big, overarching trade policy that regulated international textile exports—relaxed quotas and opened the door to serious competition from China, a behemoth of textiles and manufacturing. For MAS, which makes lingerie, this is a serious threat: China immediately began shipping 33 percent more bras than before to the U.S., 63 percent more to the European Union—a sign that the country was taking market share from smaller countries.

Meanwhile, technology has also sped up production, making it easy for clothing companies to sell an abundance of cheap threads in up-to-the-minute styles, though at the same time increasing the demands on factories. Sri Lanka can't compete in price or speed. But with MAS Holdings leading the way, industry leaders believe the country's garment manufacturers can survive in a global economy if they put working conditions ahead of the bottom line.

Family tradition dictated careers in the garment industry for Mahesh Amalean and his younger brothers, Sharad and Ajay. Their grandfather, an Indian immigrant, established a textile business in Colombo in the 1920s. Their father finished 8th grade, then went to work alongside his father. Mahesh was encouraged to study, but there was no real question as to his career. After his father's death, Mahesh chose to stay close for college, going to school in India rather than the UK or U.S., and when he finished, he returned to Sri Lanka and joined his uncles in the family business. Sharad and Ajay followed.

In 1984, Mahesh and Ajay left the family business to start their own company. They pooled $10,000, bought 40 sewing machines and opened Sigma Industries' factory in an industrial area south of the city. Mahesh's wife took charge of human resources and administration, Sharad's wife ran the accounts, and the brothers did everything else, from meeting with customers to sewing samples to packing and shipping the finished goods.

From the beginning, the brothers rejected the sweatshop model, in part because they were supervising production themselves—if conditions were bad for the garment workers, they were equally uncomfortable for them.

Some orders were late. Others were returned for sub-par manufacturing. Frustrated customers took their business elsewhere. It was a year before things ran smoothly. Within two, Sharad had joined his brothers, they renamed the firm with their initials and the company had landed its first big international customer, MAST Industries, a major supplier to Limited Brands, the $7.5 billion apparel company behind Victoria's Secret, Henri Bendel and the Canadian lingerie label La Senza.

<< PREVIOUS 1 2 3 4 NEXT >>
view as a single page