The Indian consumer-goods arm of Reliance has built relationships with four Sri Lankan businesses over the past four years and has already launched products from two of them in the Indian market, its chief executive told Colombo’s largest business gathering on Monday — and he wants more.

T. Krishnakumar, CEO of Reliance Consumer Products Ltd., delivered the keynote address at the inauguration of the two-day Sri Lanka Economic and Investment Summit 2026, organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, the Daily FT reported. He said the launches had produced encouraging results.

“We value the knowledge and the capability that Sri Lankan enterprises have in many areas of consumer products,” he said.

The pitch: components of a value chain, not just finished goods

Krishnakumar framed the opportunity as collaboration across the whole chain — product development, manufacturing, sourcing, packaging and distribution — rather than simply exporting finished Sri Lankan goods. That, he argued, would let companies in both countries reach more consumers and build stronger regional value chains.

He named tea, apparel, ceramics and food as established Sri Lankan capabilities that could carry deeper commercial collaboration, citing longstanding cultural and economic ties between the two countries.

He also attached a condition. Partnerships require time, mutual trust and a commitment to sharing benefits: “They become stronger when each partner feels heard, when commitments are honoured, and when the benefits are shared fairly."

"Clarity and consistency are far more important than any incentives”

The most quotable line of the address was a direct challenge to the standard investment-promotion playbook.

“Clarity and consistency, in my view, are far more important than any incentives,” he said.

Krishnakumar identified a predictable operating environment as the key consideration for investors making long-term commitments, listing clear tax policies, dependable regulatory frameworks, timely approvals and effective mechanisms for resolving difficulties. Long-term investment carries responsibilities towards employees, suppliers and communities, he said, which makes stability essential across a project’s whole life cycle — and sustained government–industry dialogue is what builds that confidence, with businesses obliged in return to honour commitments and give practical feedback.

That is a notable emphasis to put to this particular audience. The summit’s host government has spent the year marketing incentives: the President told the same event that tax concessions might be extended to businesses investing in rural areas, and the Digital Economy Ministry is working with the Board of Investment on an incentive framework for data centres. Krishnakumar’s argument is that the incentives are the less important half of the offer.

He did not, on the Daily FT’s account, say whether Sri Lanka currently meets his test.

A caution against assuming products travel

Krishnakumar warned that businesses entering established markets must respect local brands, consumer preferences and cultural heritage rather than assume products successful elsewhere would automatically succeed — and said Sri Lanka’s distinct tastes and consumer preferences could themselves be a source of insight for firms expanding internationally.

“I worship somebody who is the consumer,” he said, stressing the need to understand household needs, purchasing power and expectations.

Quality alone was not enough, he added: businesses must make quality goods affordable through better product design, sourcing, manufacturing and distribution. He identified digitalisation and artificial intelligence as major opportunities, particularly digital payments, platforms for farmers and improved access to information, which he said could help small suppliers connect with consumers.

The company’s own numbers

Drawing on Reliance Consumer Products’ expansion, Krishnakumar said it had grown from a team of three people four years ago to nearly 11,000 employees. He attributed that to execution, respect for local preferences, digitalisation and affordability.

“While strategy provides direction, progress comes through the daily work of many people,” he said.

On Sri Lanka’s position, he acknowledged recent improvements in economic stability and reserves but said the next phase of growth would require sustained investment in productive capacity, stronger exports and greater opportunities for young people — and that the country could develop further as a regional centre for manufacturing, services and logistics if it continued strengthening its investment environment.

Who he is

The Daily Mirror reported the billing five days before the summit. Krishnakumar — known as “Kk” — brings more than four decades across consumer brands and FMCG markets, and previously served as President of Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia. He holds an MBA in marketing from the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and a BE (Hons) from the College of Engineering Guindy, and completed an Advanced Management Programme at Wharton.

SLEIS 2026 ran on 12 and 13 October at the Shangri-La Colombo under the theme Positioning Sri Lanka in a Changing Global Economy: Resilience, Reform and the Future of Economic Policy. The summit also produced the President’s announcement that the East Container Terminal’s management will go to a private operator and his digital adviser’s assessment that the country’s data centre shortage is partly a market failure.

Not reported

The four Sri Lankan businesses are not named, nor are the two whose products have launched in India, nor the products themselves. No value, volume or sales figure is given for those launches, and “encouraging results” is not quantified.

The filing does not say what Reliance Consumer Products is seeking next in concrete terms — whether it is looking for contract manufacturers, equity partners, suppliers or distributors — or whether any new agreement was signed or is under negotiation. It gives no indication of whether the company intends to invest directly in Sri Lanka as distinct from sourcing from it.

It also does not report any response from Sri Lankan business chambers or the government to his argument that policy clarity outweighs incentives, and no second verified newsroom has yet carried an account of the keynote itself — the Daily Mirror filing cited here reported the billing in advance, not the address.