The interwebs were abuzz a week or so ago with the news of Sandra Wanduragala, the Founder of one of Sri Lanka’s best-loved brands, Selyn, being named one of Forbes Asia’s 50 Over 50.
It is always inspiring to see Sri Lankans go forth and put us on the international map, but what makes this all the more powerful is that Sandra, through Selyn, has spent nearly 32 years making a difference in the lives of rural communities while building a business that has been able to take itself and one of Sri Lanka’s most age-old heritage crafts global.
Selyn is Sri Lanka’s only fair-trade certified handicrafts company and one of its largest social enterprises. Founded in 1991 by Sandra in her garage with 15 women from her village of Wanduragala near Kurunegala, over the last three decades, Selyn has since grown into one of our country’s top handicraft retail brands, one of our largest social enterprises, and Sri Lanka’s only fair-trade handicrafts company.
The Sunday Morning Brunch caught up with Sandra, a lady of few words but limitless impact, for her thoughts on this making Forbes 50 Over 50, what inspired the beginnings of Selyn, and what she’s excited about for the future.
Her most recent accolade
The Forbes Asia list recognises women working across technology, pharmaceuticals, art, and politics and beyond, who are proving that success comes at any age. This list was compiled by Forbes Asia in partnership with Mika Brzezinski and Know Your Value.
As the Founder-Chairman of Selyn, Sandra’s recognition by Forbes Asia comes from the impact she has been able to drive through Selyn, from reaching exceptional heights in her own industry and inspiring the region’s next generation.
Speaking on making Forbes 50 Over 50, Sandra shared that while she was very touched to have been honoured in such a way, she had no special feelings about the accolade itself on a personal level, noting: “I feel comforted that someone has recognised my service to the country. When I started Selyn 32 years ago, I didn’t even think that it would go global one day. I started it with the motivation of needing to do something for society, I wasn’t thinking about the long term. It was only later as I was carrying on that I understood it was actually a need for the rural economy.”
Sandra did share that she was immensely proud to be able to represent and highlight Sri Lanka in such a way and stand amongst some of the most respected and trailblazing women in Asia for her vision of a sustainable business model that grows and empowers the livelihoods of women.
“All along I believed that I could have an impact and we worked toward a certain vision, to make it something different from what the market offers, and I think we’re slowly evolving to revolutionise the craft industry,” Sandra said.
Selyn: Three decades of quiet strength
Early on (around 1995), Selyn carved a name for itself by exporting handloom toys, one of the main reasons it has been able to gain financial independence and really focus on how it works and empowers those around it. This was solidified in 2000 when Selyn became a member of the World Free Trade Organization (WFTO), all while based exclusively in Kurunegala.
The year 2008 saw Selyn as a brand move to Colombo (as a brand from Kurunegala) and into retail proper, first setting up shop at Isipathana Mawatha, Colombo 5 and then on to Fife Road which is where its core retail space and Colombo office is now set up.
The year 2015 saw the launch of Selyn Play, a concerted move to highlight Selyn as a producer of educational toys internationally, something it had been doing since 1995 but hadn’t been gaining the appropriate recognition for. In 2020, Selyn took a bigger stand in retail with its ‘Love Local’ retail concept and 2021 saw the launch of Selyn Textiles, which forms the base of Selyn’s vision for the next few years, which is all about building high-value ethical products and is an evolution of Selyn’s unwavering commitment to empowering communities.
Even with its newest project (Selyn Textiles), this core commitment to empowering and growing communities has led it to several incredibly fruitful partnerships and is even being looked at as a case study of fair trade supply and sustainable supply chains by the University of the Arts London.
From the start, Selyn has been clear about what it stood for and that firmness of belief is part of what has allowed the brand to flourish. That and the fact that it has always been led by someone who can see the future and innovate while maintaining the brand’s values of fair trade and responsibility, from when Sandra began the brand in 1991 to today, where under her daughter Selyna’s leadership, Selyn is on the cusp of not just being able to showcase handloom to the global market as a high-end sustainable textile, but is also able to do so with complete transparency.
“It has been the biggest journey,” Sandra said, reflecting on the past 30 years. “My first ambition was to win the Presidential Award for Exports, (which we were awarded in 2009), and along the way, we have won many awards. But I think one of the most touching moments has been this recent listing in Forbes; we had not applied and we had no idea someone was watching and when I heard the news it was one of the most touching moments. Our most important milestone to date was the day we launched blockchain to apply to the craft industry.”
Blockchain: The next frontier for Selyn in pioneering sustainability
One key goal for Selyn entering 2022 (on top of its other consistent long-term goals) was integrating fashion and technology to amplify the message of Selyn’s social enterprise. Using blockchain technology (which is essentially a digital system, or ledger, that records information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change or hack once it has been stored), Selyn’s vision of a social business model allows it to tell its customers more about who has made their products and how.
This vision came to fruition with the launch of Selyn’s banana fibre bag, a designer collaboration with Danish designer Nikolaj Storm and tech company Paper Tale and a stepping stone for greater transparency across fashion and retail. Essentially, through using blockchain technology (which is where Paper Tale comes in), by scanning a QR code, a Selyn customer will be able to see who made the product they’re looking at, from the age and socioeconomic profile of an artisan to the wages they are paid (and if they have, in fact, been paid and when) to the environmental impact of that same product, from its carbon footprint to its material composition and how circular it is.
The technology is still in its early stages and with the banana fibre bag becoming available next spring, 2023 will see Selyn experimenting with how international customers react to this increased availability of information and with how textiles and other products can be priced before the technology is expanded to the rest of its product ranges in stages.
“I didn’t understand what blockchain was, to be honest, because I’m from the other generation. I didn’t really believe it was possible, but it is possible. Anything is possible,” Sandra explained of the beginnings of Selyn’s journey experimenting with blockchain and technology to drive transparency, also adding that Selyn had always been committed to encouraging full transparency of supply chains and revolutionising its product to drive this transparency, responsibility, and authenticity.
“Now the ball is in Selyna’s court,” Sandra shared of Selyn, the future, and going global through the marriage of tech and textile. “I have handed over the business to her and it is her responsibility to take Selyn towards the next level and I am fully confident she will do it with the confidence and enthusiasm she brings. I’m happy to take a back seat and see how Selyn evolves.”
The importance of giving back
With Selyn always having had sustainability and empowerment at its core, Brunch asked Sandra how that came to be – where the passion to make a difference had come from and how it had shaped Selyn from the very beginning.
“I come from very humble beginnings and I saw the struggles a woman has to sustain a family. I was always a person who put my happiness behind the happiness of other people, it’s just my nature,” Sandra said. Understanding from her own experiences and from those of the women around her just how powerful financial empowerment could be had sparked the initial idea of Selyn – the opportunity to help others.
Before Selyn and all the way through Selyn, Sandra has remained an Attorney-at-Law with her own practice (mainly focusing on the notarial side of law), and this too helped her make Selyn a priority and give it its own chance to thrive. Since she was not dependent on Selyn for her own livelihood, she was able to invest most of its profits back into the business, to scale upward helping more women.
“I firmly believe that each person has their own destiny and that I was born to do a service to my country,” Sandra shared. “I’m very happy because I started with a vision of doing something for this country and I have been able to create some impact on society. I am quite satisfied to have committed myself and my life to what I do. It was not about becoming rich, but giving whatever the business had to improve the business itself so it had a better impact on its stakeholders.”