By Michelle Alles
Hiruki Wickramasinghe, a former student of Colombo International School, completed her degree in Fashion and Textile Retailing at the University of Manchester, UK. When she moved back to Colombo in 2012, she knew she wanted to work in fashion, so she started off her career at Odel. Three years later, she fulfilled her dream of starting her own business when she and her brother, Veron Wickramasinghe started up Bubble Me, which is a smash hit in Colombo’s tropical weather. Hiruki is still very much into fashion and plans to start a new venture soon. Read on for more…
On Bubble Me…
Bubble Me aims to satisfy your bubble tea cravings. Located in Thimbirigasyaya, it’s a takeaway style outlet that serves a huge variety of bubble tea drinks, ranging from milk teas, fruit teas, yoghurt teas and slushies’. You can pick your own sugar level, as well as your topping (pearls, jellies or popping boba). Bubble Me is most popular for its range of milk teas and fruit teas, as there are so many options to choose from.
When They First Dreamed Up The Bubble Me Concept…
Bubble Me is the brainchild of Veron Wickramasinghe, my brother, who ventured in my father’s footsteps and went into Civil Engineering at the University of Southampton. He had thought of the concept in 2012, after years of travelling and drinking bubble tea in countries like Singapore, Thailand and Australia, he thought there would be a potential market for it in Sri Lanka seeing as how Sri Lankans have the tendency to love anything sweet! And with so many coffee shops popping up it would have been a refreshing change. However due to other work commitments, it was not feasible to go in to it at that time, as I myself had just started my career at Odel. It was only in 2015 when we started talking about future plans and I had realised by then that I wanted to work on a project of my own, that we came together in a partnership to bring his idea from 2012 to life. He had already laid the groundwork for it in 2012 so we followed up on that and 10 months later we opened our first outlet in September 2016.
How She Balances Time Between A Business And Looking So Fabulous…
Why, thank you! To be honest it was challenging at the start, I am an extreme fitness enthusiast and follow a very healthy lifestyle from clean eating and working out at the gym. After Bubble Me opened, I spent all my time there, missed my workouts and was eating fast food. At the beginning its always going to be tough finding time for yourself because your priorities change as you dedicate yourself to your work. But it’s all about finding balance, after 2 months of settling in with the shop opening and realising the demands of the customers and most importantly finding a solid team to work with, I started incorporating my workouts and clean eating back in to my daily routine, I would prepare early and pack a gym bag and leave it in the car so that I could even go for an hour if I got the chance. I firmly believe that feeling good on the inside will have an effect on how you feel on the outside. I feel so much more energetic, active and motivated now than I did 2 months ago. And that in turn affects your daily performance and mental thinking.
On The Best Advice She’s Ever Been Given…
Life is too short, don’t waste time, and don’t have regrets…live it to your fullest.
On Hiruki’s Personal Style…
I love a lot of things when it comes to fashion, but one thing I love the most and also get teased all the time about by my friends, is my obsession with black and white clothes. If you look in my wardrobe, you’ll find mostly monochrome shades, some greys and navy and only splash of colour here and there. I find black to be the most flattering colour on a woman’s body, no matter what shape or size; there is no way wearing black could ever go wrong! When it comes to trends I wear what I want, mostly high-street pieces from Zara or Topshop (two of my favourite stores). My style has changed quite a bit in recent months, I’m moving more towards simple, classic pieces and away from girly pieces and prints, I think it’s to do with getting older, haha! I also like to be comfortable when I’m at work, so it would be mostly jeans and a loose fit shirt, or a shift dress. You can’t go wrong with loose fit shirts or shift dresses and both are absolute staples in my wardrobe.
On What Makes A Woman Beautiful…
A strong, independent woman who knows what she wants. Looks are only skin deep. A woman with drive, ambition, kindness, generosity would inspire me any day.
On Role Models…
Yes, two of the greatest men I know…my dad and my brother. I am where I am now because of them. My dad has always set an exceptional example to both his kids; he pushes us every day to be a better version of ourselves in all aspects of life. His work ethic is unbeatable, and he is the most humble man I know.
My brother is my mentor. They say working with family is risky, but I don’t regret my decision at all. Partnering up with him for work has changed my life – I would have never have imagined to be running a popular bubble tea outlet had it not been for him! He doesn’t live in Sri Lanka anymore, yet we talk regularly and I always involve him in my decision making process – whether it’s professional or personal, because I value his opinion. He does more than mentor me; he helps make me a better person.
On Advice To Young Entrepreneurs…
Don’t be afraid to take the risk. It seems scary and daunting at the start and you definitely have to step out of your comfort zone and lose the security blanket but if you believe in your idea and you have a support system to help you, then take that leap and go for it, because if you don’t, someone else will! There is nothing worse than looking back and thinking “I should have done that.” My other piece of advice would be – don’t waste time. Time is so important. If you have an idea, work on it and see it through without wasting time. Do everything you can to get that idea going. If not, before you know it, someone else may have stepped into the game and you will find yourself lagging behind.
On Hiruki’s Future Plans…
We have big plans for Bubble Me and we are already working on opening our next location. Apart from that, I am also working on my own project, which will be along the lines of fashion. It’s quite an exciting project and I hope to have that ready in the next month or so. Since I studied fashion and it is absolutely my core area of interest, I knew I had to, and wanted to get involved in the industry so stay tuned for updates on that later!