Founded in 1974, Mahogany Masterpieces (MM) has grown from a Sri Lankan craft workshop into a luxury furniture house with clients across 16 countries. Fifty-two years on, the company is still family-run, still exports, and in 2026 launched a new digital flagship and what it describes as Sri Lanka’s most sophisticated luxury AI Concierge.
Kishan Gooneratne, Managing Director at Mahogany Masterpieces, spoke to Echelon about the company’s roots and what he wants the next generation of leadership and craftsmen to inherit.
When you look at the company’s scale, export reach, and reputation today, what were the founding decisions that made all of that possible?
We never thought much about scale or any particular market. But reputation was held in the highest regard by my father and his brothers from the very beginning. One thing my uncle Anil told me repeatedly when I took over was that what we make must be appreciated even decades down the line, and we need to feel proud about the standards we maintain. That philosophy drives what we do today: selecting only the finest timber, working only with the most skilled craftsmen, creating products that are timeless. These standards are not scalable in the conventional business sense, and that’s the point. The rarity of the raw material and the skill that goes into it is precisely what makes it valuable and sought after across the world. Everything else followed from those two things.
The company has lived through all of Sri Lanka’s major upheavals. What helped Mahogany Masterpieces weather these challenges?
Reaching the 50-year milestone gave us the chance to reflect, and one thing that surprised us was realising that some of our strongest periods came during times of national and international crisis. Three things explain that.
The first is consistency. During uncertain times, people look for brands they can trust. The second is relationships. Over 80% of our orders come from repeat purchases or personal recommendations. We have clients who bought furniture for their wedding and are now buying for their grandchildren. The third is adaptability. Finding the balance between what values to hold onto and what to evolve, and being able to move fast without lowering standards, has been central to our story.
There’s a difference between inheriting a company and inheriting a philosophy. How did you know which decisions were yours to make, and which ones needed to stay exactly as they were?
It took time to learn the difference, but the test I eventually found was this: if a decision goes to the root of why customers trust us, it stays. If it’s about how we express or deliver that trust, it’s mine to evolve.
How we finish, communicate, and reach new customers globally are my primary concerns. When I formalised our commitment to 100% solid timber, zero sapwood, a 12-step finishing process for local work and a 14-step for exports, those were evolutions of the founding philosophy, not departures from it. The philosophy that came with the company was more valuable than any asset on the balance sheet.
Anil Gooneratne established the craft knowledge and quality standards still followed today. How do you protect and share such knowledge as the company grows?
Anil, my father’s youngest brother and in many ways MM’s very first craftsman, created the standards this company still runs on. His hands-on knowledge of and feel for timber and craftsmanship is unmatched. The layered multi-timber techniques, the approach to joinery, and the finishing discipline all came from him. The challenge with master craftsmen is that their knowledge lives in their hands and their eyes, not in manuals. This cannot be replicated by following a formula. It can only be achieved by staying true to your discipline and building a culture that respects and safeguards it, generation after generation.
Plant A Plant reaches growers, communities, and schoolchildren across Sri Lanka. Why does giving back matter to you, and what does it take to keep the programme going?
Plant A Plant started from something straightforward: we use trees, and that creates an obligation. We built a 50-year company on mahogany and have a responsibility to ensure that the resource is renewed, not just as a business input but as an ecological commitment.
Quality mahogany takes 15 to 20 years to grow, and premature harvesting has drastically reduced the availability of high-quality timber. That was a major factor in our decision to start our own plantations this year. Controlling quality from sapling onwards gives us access to the highest-grade timber
in a sustainable way.
Taking Plant A Plant into schools matters because the people who will tend the forests of the next 50 years are sitting in classrooms today.
The Furniture Spa and your Interior Solutions practice represent new chapters for the business. How much of these initiatives is driven by market trends, and how much by your own vision?
Mostly vision, occasionally validated by market timing.
The Furniture Spa, Sri Lanka’s first dedicated furniture restoration service, launched in 2010. It came from watching what happened to our pieces in clients’ homes over time. Timeless pieces need to be maintained to retain their beauty and value. We knew how to do that, and it seemed obvious to offer that knowledge as a service.
The Interior Solutions practice grew from a similar realisation. Clients were coming to us for furniture, but what they actually needed was a complete vision for their space. That practice is led by Ayesha, our Director of Design and Brand Development, who brings over 15 years of experience designing interiors in Sri Lanka and overseas. She studied at the Academy of Design in Colombo, went on to Harvard University’s Landscape Institute, and worked at the Creative Office Pavilion at the Boston Design Centre, at the time, the largest Herman Miller dealership in the United States.
We built a structured practice around it, covering residential and commercial interiors, including some of Sri Lanka’s most significant luxury projects. It was a natural extension of what we had always been doing.
How has the international market shaped the company?
Export has been one of the most clarifying forces in MM’s history. When your furniture is being shipped to Australia, the UK, India, and the USA, to clients who have access to the best in the world, there is no tolerance for anything less than exceptional. Export gave us a standard. It told us, clearly and without sentiment, exactly how we compared to the best.
What’s exciting now is that we’re building a more intentional global strategy, reaching the Sri Lankan diaspora in countries like Australia, the UK, Canada, and the UAE. These are people who grew up knowing this furniture and now want it in their homes abroad. That’s a different kind of export story, and one we’re investing in seriously.
How do you ensure technology supports rather than undermines your values?
The test we apply is simple: does this technology make it easier for the right person to find us, under- stand us, and trust us, or does it replace the human and craft elements that make us who we are?
The AI Concierge on our website exists to give someone in Melbourne at midnight a way to ask real questions about our furniture and get intelligent, accurate answers. It extends access without replacing craft. What we won’t do is use AI to generate images of our products. Only real photographs of real furniture in real homes. We’ve also built an internal AI assistant for our staff, helping them track their work, train across different areas of the business, and communicate brand standards consistently.
You’ve said the trees being planted now will be worked by craftsmen you haven’t yet met. What do you want the leadership in 2074 to keep or change from today?
Keep the obsession with quality. Keep the zero-sap wood rule. Keep the commitment to telling the truth about what we make. Keep the relationship with the customer at the centre of everything, not the transaction, but the relationship. Keep Plant A Plant.
Keep the conviction that luxury and conscience are not in conflict.
I hope that by 2074, MM is recognised in the
same breath as the great furniture houses of history,
Kishan Gooneratne, Managing Director, and Ayesha Gooneratne, Director of Design and Brand Development at Mahogany Masterpieces
Chippendale and Hepplewhite. That’s why we introduced our inlaid branding and a tracking process for the pieces we make today. Sri Lanka has a rich antique furniture market, but there is no recognition of the master craftsmen who made those pieces over a hundred years ago. We already have pieces made over 40 years ago in pristine condition. We believe that by 2074, our pieces will be globally sought after in the way the great houses are today.
Legacy is not what you inherit. It’s what you build next, and what you protect while you’re building it.