A US based company, Tandon Enterprises, (TA) has selected their Sri Lankan factory in Pallekelle Kandy to manufacture High Definition Multimedia Interface Cables (HDMI) for the US Television market for the first time in the South Asian history.

The cable is the key link to provide crystal clear pictures for the ‘high definition TV’s’ that have now been introduced to the US market.

These cables are also manufactured in China to serve the next generation televisions that are now being introduced in US.

“However the supply in China is not adequate and this is the reason the company decided to manufacture this cable in the Sri Lankan plant,” Vice President Sri Lanka Operations, Tandon Enterprises, Bernard Peiris said in an exclusive interview with the Daily News Business.

He said Sri Lankan manufactured product returns are less that even 1 per cent and this was a major factor to award this project to Sri Lanka.

The company was set up in 1996 with an investment of US $ 10 million to manufacture Computer hard discs (Read and Write) and currently employs around 1,200. “We have reinvested US $ one million for this operation,” Peiris said.

He added that Tandon Enterprises is a historic company as it introduced the Floppy drive to the world. It had its first Asian factory in Singapore and now has factories in Malaysia, China, India and Sri Lanka.

The company’s roll out plan for the product would commence next month and would manufacture 20,000 HDMI cables in the first month and increase production to 100,000 within two months.

“All Memory manufactured products are ISO 9001 certified and TA memory is fast becoming one of the largest manufacturers of memory modules in the world. Such volume production reflects the ongoing demand it experiences for product from various retail and OEM customers.

TA has built memory products since 1998. The company has developed proprietary test software, which assures the overall quality and functional versatility of the memory product,” Peiris explained.

The factory was first scheduled to be opened in Sri Lanka on an invitation of Peiris in 1983 and due to the July riots it was postponed.

He said the US officials are amazed at the skills of Lankan workers. “However high electricity rates and lack of a highway have a negative impact,” he said. All modules are sold under ‘TA’ brand and are offered with lifetime warranty.

-Jameson