An Appreciation by: Siva Sivapragasam
[monssonjournal.com] A.Y.S.Gnanam,a leading industrialist and Chairman of Express Newspapers(Ceylon)Ltd. which publishes the premier Tamil Daily in Sri Lanka “Virakesari” passed away about two weeks ago at the ripe age of eighty-four.
Arulanandam Yesuvadian Samuel Gnanam was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His story is that of rags to riches. He arrived in Sri Lanka from South India with his parents and siblings almost empty handed. He started life in Sri Lanka by selling scrap-iron during world-war two. The war and the shortage of scrap material in India helped him to expand this business. Gradually he went around buying scrap material and exporting it to India. When the war ended there was a shortage and he cashed on this. From selling scrap material he ventured out into the hardware business and set-up St.Anthonys Hardware stores and started dealing in hardware products.
From this point onwards it was going up the ladder in business for Gnanam. It is said that he won the Agency for the prestigious Grundig radios competing with leaders in electronic products. The import restrictions during Sirimavo Bandaranaike’s period of regime helped him to set up new industries to manufacture Hardware and Plastic products. His next line of business was Textiles and he started the manufacture of synthetic textiles like sarees, suitings, etc. under the name of Cyntex. It was during this time that he secured a loan from the World Bank for his Textile industry. It is said that he was the first private sector entrepreneur to obtain a World Bank loan. He also ventured into the manufacture of Cement with collaboration with the famous Japanese Mitsui firm. His final entry was into Newspaper business when he took over the “Virakesari” Newspaper group as it’s Chairman.
Samuel Gnanam was a man of deeds and not of words. He had a Midas touch in whatever he did. He never took “no” for an answer. He was never disappointed or frustrated over defeats. When all his factories were burnt down during the 1983 ethnic riots in Sri Lanka many of his friends advised him to migrate to India. He declined promising to re-build his Business Empire. This he did within a short time.
Gnanam had a knack to turn around less profitable businesses. During the 1970s due to import restrictions and a crippling of Government Advertising, the Virakesari Group of Newspapers had a hard time. Other Directors were pessimistic about it’s future. He told the writer who worked there as an executive and another colleague “my fellow Directors want to run away. But I have persuaded them to carry on. Please do your best to run this place profitably”. Time passed and the Newspaper was on the rails running smoothly. Although his business interests brought him into close contact with the top people running the Government he never allowed the independence of the Newspaper to suffer and he rarely interfered with the running of the Newspaper. Thus, the Virakesari was looked upon by the Tamil people as an independent, non-political Media working for the interest of the Tamil community.
The death of Gnanam creates a void in the generation of successful entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka and ends the list of Businessmen of the Tamil community of his age. [monsoonjournal.com]