Founded in 1942 as W. Punchibanda & Sons, NativeWay is a third-generation engineering company serving hospitals, hotels, factories and commercial developments across South Asia.
NativeWay (Pvt) Ltd. is a Sri Lankan engineering company specialising in turnkey mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire-protection solutions for commercial, industrial, residential and institutional developments.
We started in 1942 as W. Punchibanda & Sons — a single-room contracting firm at 549, Sri Sangaraja Mawatha. Three generations later, we're still at the same address, still family-owned, with 240+ engineers and tradespeople working on projects from luxury hotels in Galle to industrial parks outside Dhaka.
The headquarters hasn't changed in 84 years. Almost everything else has — capability, scale, reach.
CIDA EM1. The top contractor grade Sri Lanka issues for mechanical and electrical work — across every MEP category. ISO 9001:2015 certified. One design-and-build team owns drawing board to commissioning to maintenance. One contract. One accountable name when something needs fixing.
Two subsidiaries handle our regional work: NativeWay (Bangladesh) Limited in Dhaka (incorporated 2019, mostly RMG factories and pharma facilities) and NativeWay Maldives Private Limited in Malé (incorporated 2023, mostly resort and desalination work). Each operates with local crews under Sri Lankan engineering oversight — to the standards we've held since 1942.
Founded 1942. Continuously trading across three generations of family ownership.
Engineers, technicians, tradespeople and project managers across three countries.
Sri Lanka HQ, Maldives subsidiary, Bangladesh subsidiary — same standards everywhere.
Hotels, hospitals, factories, residential towers, government buildings and industrial parks.
From a single-room contracting outfit in post-war Colombo to a regional engineering company — the milestones that shaped NativeWay.
Wijesinghe Punchibanda begins taking on small electrical and plumbing contracts for the British administration and emerging Ceylonese businesses. The workshop occupies a single ground-floor unit on Sri Sangaraja Mawatha — the same address NativeWay calls home today.
The second generation takes over as Sri Lanka industrialises. The firm wins its first factory commissions — textile mills, tea-processing plants, beverage facilities — and adds mechanical and HVAC capability to its electrical roots.
After four decades trading as a family contracting outfit, the firm is incorporated as a private limited company — W. Punchibanda & Sons (Pvt) Ltd. The move formalises governance and unlocks the larger commercial and institutional contracts of Sri Lanka's open-economy era.
The company achieves ISO 9001 certification for its quality management systems and is awarded CIDA EM1 — Sri Lanka's highest contractor grade — across every MEP category. The same year, the integrated design-and-build practice formalises.
Strategic agreements with Teksan (Turkey), MTU/Rolls-Royce Power Systems and DOMUS (Spain) make the company the authorised distributor for premium gensets, mission-critical power and commercial laundry equipment in Sri Lanka.
W. Punchibanda & Sons (Pvt) Ltd. is officially renamed NativeWay (Pvt) Ltd. — a brand that travels better across regional markets and signals the firm's evolution from family contractor to integrated engineering business. The legal entity, the address and the standards remain unchanged — only the name is new.
The first overseas subsidiary is incorporated in Dhaka, focused on industrial and commercial MEP for Bangladesh's expanding manufacturing sector — RMG factories, pharmaceuticals, food processing.
A second overseas subsidiary is incorporated in Malé — serving the resort-island construction market, hospitality MEP, public infrastructure and desalination across the archipelago.
NativeWay enters its 84th year as a regional integrated engineering company — design-build MEP, fire safety, solar EPC, mission-critical power and AMC — under the leadership of Managing Director Kanchana Dissanayake.
NativeWay (Pvt) Ltd. · Colombo
To our partners, clients and colleagues —
Sri Lanka is an extraordinary place to be an engineer right now. We have a generation of buildings that need rebuilding, an energy transition to deliver, and a region opening up around us. Eighty-four years in, we feel less like a heritage company and more like one that has just got started.
NativeWay was founded in 1942 by my family on a simple promise: to do honest engineering work, finish what we started, and stand behind it for as long as it stood. Three generations later, that promise still defines us.
We are proudly Sri Lankan, and committed to expanding our footprint into international markets while continuously strengthening our technical capabilities. Our vision is to evolve into a fully integrated design-and-build MEP engineering solutions provider, delivering innovative, efficient, and sustainable systems tailored to the diverse needs of the clients we serve.
To our clients — thank you for entrusting us with your buildings, your operations and your reputations. To our team — thank you for the craft you bring to work every morning. To everyone reading this who is considering NativeWay: we'd like the chance to earn your trust.
Kanchana DissanayakeManaging Director · NativeWay (Pvt) Ltd.
NativeWay (Pvt) Ltd. · Colombo
A note on how we deliver.
Engineering excellence is the discipline of turning up every day and refusing to ship what we wouldn't stand behind. After decades on plant rooms, project sites and service callouts, that is still the simplest way I can describe what we do.
Operations is where promises become reality. A drawing on paper is a hypothesis. A commissioned chiller plant running quietly through its third monsoon is a fact. My job, and the job of every engineer at NativeWay, is to close the gap between the two with as little drama as possible.
Three principles shape how we run projects. Sequence: knowing what has to happen before what, and where the schedule will compress under pressure. Redundancy: assuming things will fail, and designing so the building keeps running when they do. After-sales: the relationship that begins at handover, not the one that ends there.
To our project teams: the standard is what gets delivered, not what gets specified. To our clients: if we sold it, we service it. That commitment predates all of us currently at NativeWay, and it is the one we intend to leave intact for whoever follows.
Director, NativeWay (Pvt) Ltd.
To be a leading engineering solutions provider in Sri Lanka and regional markets — delivering innovative, reliable, and sustainable MEP contracting services that empower businesses and enhance lives.
To provide exceptional engineering solutions through an unwavering commitment to quality, safety, and customer satisfaction. We continually improve our processes, develop our team's expertise, and uphold our values of integrity and innovation — ensuring reliable, cost-effective services that exceed our clients' expectations.
After 84 years in the business, we've found these are the only things that actually matter. The rest is just engineering.
The work is honest. The pricing is honest. We tell clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
Zero shortcuts on the work, on the wiring, on the welds, on the sites our people go home from every night.
Engineering is a craft, not a commodity. We hire for it, train for it, and won't compromise the standard.
The systems we install run for decades. We design for energy efficiency, longevity and the climate we're handing our children.
One contract, one team, one phone number. If something goes wrong on a NativeWay job, it's a NativeWay problem to fix.
NativeWay runs in-house teams across every discipline. No surprise sub-contracting, no hand-offs between trades, no diluted accountability. Every commission is delivered by people on our payroll, working to our standards.
The credentials below aren't decoration — they are independently audited assurances that the work we deliver meets the standards we claim it does.
Certified company-wide. Our design, project-delivery and after-sales-service processes are audited annually against the international standard for quality management.
Sri Lanka's Construction Industry Development Authority registers NativeWay at the highest electrical & mechanical contractor grade — across every MEP category we operate in.
Authorised distributor and service partner for Teksan generators, MTU/Rolls-Royce Power Systems, DOMUS commercial laundry, Hisense VRF and Toshiba Carrier — with factory-trained engineers.
NativeWay operates as a single engineering company with three country offices. Same processes, same QA, same accountability — wherever the project is.
Whether it's a single plant-room upgrade or a full design-build commission, the conversation starts the same way — a phone call, a site visit, an honest assessment.
