By Ruvini Jayasinghe
He had a vision beyond optometrists. A vision fuelled by the fire, enthusiasm, energy and overwhelming confidence of youth, which propelled his father’s modest business in the bustling high street of Maradana, to one of the leading optical brand names in Sri Lanka.
Immediately after his A/Ls at Ananda College, his father, Mr. George Abeygooneratne, a businessman originally from Matara, took young Jayantha under his wing. Jayantha Goonerat ne took his initial steps in optometrists in his father’s shop in Maradana. He was quick to absorb the fundamentals of the business as an apprentice under his father and his older brothers Lionel and Wasantha, (an engineer) who were his gurus in all technical aspects of optometrists.
The National Eye Hospital in Deans Road, close to his father’s shop soon came into Jayantha’s focus. Eager to make his own way and mark in the family business, young Jayantha observed the thousands of patients who flocked to the eye hospital for cataract operations and the first spark of inspiration which steered him through his journey in optometrists flashed through his mind.
Charged with energy and totally convinced of the potential success of his maiden project, Jayantha embarked on negotiations to convince the authorities that he could produce the required 15,000 cataract spectacles for the next tender locally. Winning the confidence of skeptical officials and following a stringent approval process, Jayantha won the tender; edging out the big boys in the industry to supply the first batch of 15,000 pairs of locally manufactured cataract spectacles in just four months.
“It was my very first challenge in a career steeped in challenges,” Jayantha Gooneratne, Chairman George Gooneratne Optometrists said.
Venturing out from modest beginnings, Jayantha imported raw material for manufacture of spectacles and with craftsmen and labor from his father’s village in Matara, he fabricated the machine to produce them locally.
Elated with his first victory and brimming with confidence, Jayantha was ready to make waves in the firmly established business of optometrists, in the hands of a few big businessmen, then.
“In the early sixties young people hardly wore spectacles. It was a very rare and unusual to sight to see a student in my school who wore glasses. Spectacles, mainly bi-focal lenses were used mostly by the older generation, in their middle years of over 40, as their eyesight became gradually weaker.
In the 1960s all lenses were imported and there were no plastic lenses either, only glass ones. A revolutionary novel idea kept growing in my mind and persisting. “Why can’t we produce these glass lenses locally?”
Jayantha Gooneratne’s pioneering venture in the eye care industry in 1972 is now history as the first to produce fused glass bifocals in Sri Lanka.
A complicated, tedious, demanding project no doubt, but undertaken with an abundance of enthusiasm, confidence and technical skill – the hallmark of a successful entrepreneur.
Jayantha went into overdrive as he spent hours on research for the necessary blueprint for the local manufacture of bi focal lenses. He imported a 100 sample pairs of glasses, as raw material from an UK manufacturer to master the process of making bi focal lenses for the first time in 1972.
He also had to build his own furnace and used an oxygen lamp for the research to produce the bi focal lenses. When his research and testing was completed and later with new machinery, his operation running at optimum, Jayantha could produce 13 rough glass lenses in one hour – a great achievement.
The new locally made product was patented and registered with the Ministry of Industries and ruffled the feathers of the main local competitors in the industry who were still importing lenses for their retail outlets.
Amidst petitions from the industry and a series of discussions with the Ministry of Industries, Jayantha Gooneratne received the necessary approvals to launch yet another locally manufactured glass Bifocal product in Sri Lanka’s optometrist’s industry.
Since then the company has grown rapidly with more than 30 branches island wide and around 200 employees.
Jayantha went into overdrive as he spent hours on research for the necessary blueprint for the local manufacture of bi focal lenses. He imported a 100 sample pairs of glasses, as raw material from an UK manufacturer to master the process of making bi focal lenses for the first time in 1972.
From the time of his pioneering venture of the local manufacture of bi focal lenses, Jayantha has been working toward his vision of producing eye care requirements locally.
“We have the skill and the attitude to learn and adopt to manufacture a range of eye care products locally. By shifting from importing all requirements for the eye care market to manufacturing them locally we would save considerably on our foreign exchange and also provide employment at various levels of skills to our youth and workforce,” Gooneratne said.
With an uncanny knack of observing and picking up technology on the run, Gooneratne had the vision and capacity to turn the optometrist’s industry which was almost wholly dependent on imported finished products into an industry with a local manufacture base.
With this rare achievement the company received the 1st membership from the federation of manufacturing opticians in UK in 2009.George Goonerathne Optometrists became the 1st of such companies to receive the membership outside UK.
After his two major wins with cataract spectacles and bi focal lenses, Gooneratne forged ahead, introducing more local manufactured products like plastic lenses for the first time in 1985 and subsequently metal and plastic frames and metal cases.
During his five-decade experience in the optical industry, Jayantha Gooneratne acquired the technical and marketing skills of the industry initially in India and later in the UK, Japan, Korea and China, where he attended many relevant trade fairs.
“I visited a street in Chennai (India) which was like our Panchikawatte, where an unending series of shops packed close together offered every type of requirement for the optometrist industry; most of them are below our standard.
I visited the key international fairs twice a year which assisted me tremendously in picking up new manufacturing and style trends in eye care,” he added.
During his five-decade experience in the optical industry, Jayantha Gooneratne acquired the technical and marketing skills of the industry initially in India and later in the UK, Japan, Korea and China, where he attended many relevant trade fairs.
“I also visited leading plastic lens factories in Korea and China where I was able to study their technology. Keeping track of international trends in eye care gave me the impetus for my next venture, the manufacture of plastic lenses,” he said. The company achieved another first with their production of about 15 types of high technology lenses including UV Blue coated photogray lenses.
With the production of all types of optical solutions under one roof at their state-of-the-art factory in Polgasowita, the next stage of development for the company is the manufacture of plastic frames.
With modernization, diversification and digitalization, George Gooneratne Optometrists (GGO) has taken their state-of-the-art factory, retail showrooms and online sales to the next level in optometry.
To achieve this target George Gooneratne Optometrists invested more than Rs. 190 million in “advance digital free from lens” production machines from Germany for their Polgasowita Main Factory including two hard and multicoating machines. With this new machinery, George Gooneratne Optometrists can produce all kinds of advanced designer lenses with many options at very reasonable prices compared to imported lenses.
While saving valuable foreign exchange to the country, this digital Technology, the company is now qualified as “George Gooneratne Lens Experts” in Sri Lanka. The company marks 50 years in manufacturing a range of high-quality products including spectacle lenses, frames, cases and all related products. Their production of lenses from 1972 to 2022 is more than 25 million surpassing Sri Lanka’s population.
During his illustrious career as an inventor and industrialist, Jayantha Abeygooneratne won many awards:
1. 1st international member F.M.O (UK)
2. Entrepreneur of the year western province award and National Award in 2007.
3. Won 10 consecutive gold awards from INCO Industrial Exhibition (Institution of Incorporated Engineers Sri Lanka) from 2008 to 2017 at BMICH Colombo.
4. Entrepreneur of the Year 2008, Western Province award.
5. The Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (Achiever of Industrial Excellence) National Award 2010.
6. Best Exhibition Stall organized by the College of Ophthalmologists Sri Lanka twice at Taj Samudra – Colombo.
7. Many awards from the Sri Lanka Optometric association for the outstanding Service to Optical Industry from 1972 to 2021.