A. Y. S. Gnanam

The author Jey Gnanam mentions, “I had the opportunity to visit my father’s place of birth Soukyapuram in 2011, and to see the little kudisai (hut) he spent his boyhood in. A feeling of awe and disbelief overwhelmed me at the sight of it.”

Gnanam was bestowed with three national titles, Deshabandu in 1986, Deshamanya in 1994 and Vishwa Prasadini in 1996.

When thugs robbed Gnanam’s house during the riots in 1983, they chased him out of his house. As he was just with a sarong and vest (his norm), the thugs sympathized and offered him a trouser and a shirt. Gnanam told them -

Gnanam was extremely resilient, not succumbing to pressure from friends and family when several enterprises started by him were affected by the riots in 1983; he stood firm, rebuilt and restarted.

When markets opened in the 1970s, he diversified into apparel, employing as many as 5,000 people in an enterprise to manufacture and export sweaters to the West.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Government discouraged imported items coming into the market and promoted local industry and nationalisation. Gnanam saw another opportunity to begin manufacturing in Sri Lanka. He invested in equipment from international sources including from Germany that were known to have the best technology for manufacturing and produced high quality nuts, bolts and hinges and later PVC pipes, fittings and other.

He went into trading reputed international brands Grundig and Sanyo in Sri Lanka in the 1950s.

In the 1930s he attended a night school to learn English, whilst working with his brother in a shop in Kottawa, spending half of his monthly salary for his studies.

Arulanandam Yesuvadiyan Samuel Gnanam popularly known as A. Y. S. Gnanam(5 May 1922 - 3 January 2007) was a successful Sri Lankan business tycoon who founded St. Anthony's Group among other.