 COMPANY PHILOSOPHY |
"Absolute sincerity towards customers. Our success has been based upon this, and no matter what the economic situation that prevails in the country is, we try our level best to keep our prices reasonable. We cut down on our overheads to enable our customers to get maximum benefits. Staff welfare has also contributed. Our employees are paid well, given incentive payments, bonuses. They also receive free food, lodging facilities, and medical cover. Their grievances are discussed and looked into by us and as a result we get excellent service in return."
| HISTORY |
This establishment was started nine years ago. It began small, in the sense that it was within premises of 20 x 20 feet. This is from where the organization has grown to what it is today. At the moment we have 198 male employees. House of Fashion's (HOF) turnover for a normal day is more than 5 million Rupees.
| DEVELOPMENTS |
Mr. And Mrs. Jayawardena studied the market and found that there were 3 main groups of people they had to cater to. The groups are the affluent class, the middle class and the lower middle classes. All the products that were marketed by their departmental store were targeted towards those groups and were priced accordingly at the highest possible quality at a price no other establishment in Sri Lanka was able to provide. HOF had previously owned a small place and moved on to a bigger building in Colombo 6 and the business developed to such an extent that the premises were insufficient to cater to the crowd. On the day that the new establishment was declared opened in December 1999, HOF recorded an all time high of people queuing outside its establishment, which ran to the length of 2 to 3 kilometers of shoppers standing in the queue waiting to get inside. Mr. And Mrs. Jayawardena were the first to open a departmental store in Sri Lanka with quality goods at reasonable prices and good customer relations. | Another great factor to the success of HOF is that all matters pertaining to the development of the business is due to a wife and husband combination of constant discussions and the strong mutual support. They have the Sinhala and Tamil New Year every April. This is the season during which they have a record crowd of shoppers. In December 2000 HOF was opened for 5 days, 24 hours.
| EXPANSION PROJECTS |
Very soon HOF will introduce branded products once they get a license for them by August this year. More products too will become available. For the greater convenience of their customers HOF have already purchased land for extending vehicle-parking facilities. HOF also hope to open branches outside Sri Lanka, initially in the U.K., and later on in other countries. Currently they export to Russia, London, Australia and Papua (New Guinea).
| FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS |
HOF expect to change their shop interiors every two years and change the concepts at the same time. Most probably they would own another building as well. HOF have already bought the adjoining land to build a car parking lot to provide parking facilities for 150 to 200 cars. They also expect to expand internationally.
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