Rotax celebrates 60 years of excellence

In 1963, a young man named John Roche moved into a shop on Olcott Mawatha, Pettah, with nothing but a wealth of experience earned during his years at Maurice Roche Limited, a well-known electrical white-goods distributor at the time. Crucially, John Roche had a dream and possessed the determination to bring that dream to life - and so, Rotax Limited was born.

Under the guidance of John Roche’s son, current chairman J.D.B.S. Roche, the company evolved to become the successful, visionary business it is today; needless to say, Rotax Limited is incredibly proud to celebrate its 60th year in operation.

As the chairman noted, the company which started with just 15 employees, has now grown up to over 250

employees. It has overseas wings handled by the MD, Shane Roche, from Canada, as well.
Rotax is currently doing its business in the five key areas—Trading, tendering and supply, engineering and projects, automation and system integration, engineering support services and manufacturing.
The company has over 45 agencies classified under 6 main SBU divisions, and a stock of over 5000 SKU’s of quite a large array of products of electrical industrial equipment. Add to that, there is a strong base of over 1200 customers.

 “In late 90’s, we took a step forward starting tendering to the government utilities. Having had my elder son, Shane Roche joined the company in 2004, we started engaging in turnkey contracts,” shared the chairman. “We, then, took on to distributions in diverse fields. The most recent add to our scope is re-exporting.”
Accounted to their new ventures, Rotax Limited saw an exponential growth during 2008-2009. “During that time, my second son, Sheran Roche too joined the company and now he is handling our tendering business,” added Roche.

The company has newly added related services apart from trading, including electrical automation, instrumentation and renewable energy products. Moving further, a mechanical division has also been established. Rotax is currently working with associate companies that engage in switch board building, power factor correction, lightning protection and some other engineering services also.  

Rotax limited also owns a logistics centre and a switchboard factory in Wattala.
“We have grown from very little to this, but we still continue to grow with our never ceasing hard work and God’s blessings,” said Roche. “And, as we grow, we pledge to empower our people also.”