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Today, our conversation is with a pioneering businessman who first introduced photocopying services to the Negombo area. He is Jayakody Arachchige Benedict Christopher. He is also the owner of STAT PHOTO, which was established in the “Mee Maduma” building in Negombo about five decades ago, in 1979. Accordingly, he expressed his views on the photocopying service and printing services provided by Negombo Stat Photo to its customers for almost five decades, and on the new technology used for that, as well as the changes that have taken place in the printing industry then and now. The short interview with him is published below.
STAT5
Mr. Benedict Christopher
STAT7 1
First of all, I would like to know some of your personal details?
I was born on March 21, 1957. Our village, Pamunugama. My father, Henry John Jayakody, was a businessman and ran a petrol station in Avissawella. That was the business he was engaged in. My mother did not work. The male members of my family There are three of us. I have two older brothers. I am the youngest in the family. My oldest brother is now deceased. My second brother is the one who runs the Avissawella petrol station that my father started.
I went to school at Mason College in Kandana. After I finished my education, I did not get a chance to do any other job. My parents came together and started my business called Staty Peto.
I have a daughter and a son. Both of them are married now. My wife is not working. The son is the eldest, and he has been entrusted with all the activities of my business called Staty Peto. So he is doing well. I stand by him and give him advice and the necessary support to run this business well. My daughter and her husband are currently running their own small business.
Was there a special reason why your parents let you start a business like this that provides printing services?
There was no special reason to say that. But my mother and father wanted me to start a good business without sending me to a job. Accordingly, my father had a good friend named Gabby Gomes, he was the one who first brought and distributed photocopy machines to Sri Lanka. He said, let’s start a business like this by installing photocopy machines in Negombo.
I want to tell you another thing here, before my father became a businessman, when he was a young boy, he had gone to work for a businessman who was close to him. He was in Avissawella. We call him Mr. Gomes. He had many businesses in Avissawella, the city and many other places. So, while he was like that, he had problems and he had sold almost all of those businesses. When it was sold, that Mr. Gomez, my father’s half-brother, gave it to my father to take over and run the gas station in Avissawella. That’s how my father became a businessman. That Mr. Gomez’s son is Gabby Gomez. He was a good friend of my father. He was the one who first gave my mother and father the idea of starting a printing business with this photocopy service.
STAT1
As far as I’ve heard, this business was started in February. Almost no one starts a business in February, because it’s a month with few days. Why did you decide to start your business in February?
The reason for that was Mr. Gabby Gomez himself who gave the idea to start the business. He gave the idea to start this and told me to start it soon. At that time, one of our brothers was the manager of Hatton National Bank, and he was the one who found this place. So, our father told Mr. Gabby Gomez that the building was now completely renovated. That’s when Mr. Gabby Gomez said that we are Catholics, we don’t have to worry about anything else. If everything is ready, we will start this in February. Accordingly, we started this business on the first of February 1979. At this time, it has been 45 years since we started this business.
When you started this company, can you briefly describe the printing services provided by your business, including photocopying services?
Now, when we started this in 1979, we only provided photocopying services and Roneo services. I remember that first Mr. Gabby Gomez brought us a photocopying machine made in America. As I remember, its name was “Nashua”. .It cost about Rs. 50,000/= at that time. We got it with a bank loan. Before we started the photocopy service here, Mr. Gabby Gomes took me and another person who was employed here to his place in Bristol Lane, Colombo and gave us both a good training on how to work this photocopy machine and the technology. At that time, the photocopy machines were bigger than the ones we have now. We had difficulty lifting that machine at that time. The photocopy was printed with a liquid in that machine, that is, a liquid like ink. That means that this petroleum is made by cleaning it well. Another chemical has to be added to it. Photocopy was printed at that time not with a powder like today. As I recall, we made a photocopy, that is, an A4 copy.
