~ Member of diversified Sunshine Holdings Group emerges as largest branded tea company and its ‘Watawala Tea’ brand becomes the highest selling single tea brand in Sri Lanka
Celebrating the company’s exceptional success during the last year in which it emerged as the country’s largest branded tea company and achieved several other key milestones, Watawala Tea Ceylon (WTC) held its Annual Convention in gala fashion recently.
Watawala Tea Ceylon (WTC), a member of the diversified Sunshine Holdings conglomerate, had much to celebrate, with independent research by Nielsen Research indicating that in 2015 the company had clinched 32% or nearly a third of local market share in branded tea (in terms of volume). Thereby Watawala Tea Ceylon (WTC) emerged as Sri Lanka’s largest branded tea company, extending the industry leadership positions held by Sunshine Holdings group entities currently in plantations and healthcare to tea FMCG.
The three tea brands of Watawala Tea Ceylon – Zesta, Watawala Tea and Ran Kahata – too achieved several key milestones, besides substantially increasing their market shares and revenues. Watawala Tea, with a market share of 21%, emerged as the country’s single largest brand (in terms of volume) while Ran Kahata was the fastest growing tea brand in the local market in 2015, according to Nielsen Research. Furthermore, in 2015 Zesta was the tea brand with the highest customer loyalty in the country, as per Lanka Market Research Bureau (LMRB).
“These remarkable achievements during the last year clearly demonstrate that Watawala Tea Ceylon is very much on the right track and is well-poised for further growth,” Watawala Tea Ceylon CEO – Surith Perera said. “This growth, achieved despite functioning in a highly competitive industry in which global organisations are present, is a reflection of our solid fundamentals and the unparalleled skills and competency of our staff. Through the Annual Convention we wish to pay tribute to the contributions of our staff and share our success with them, while setting the pace for the year ahead.”
At the Annual Convention themed ‘Speed to success,’ reflecting the company’s efforts for further improvement via emphasis on speed, Watawala Tea Ceylon shared its success with employees by giving away awards and valuable rewards – including cash prizes. Overall more than 20 awards were presented.
The senior management of the company including Sunshine Holdings PLC Group Managing Director – Vish Govindasamy, Watawala Tea Ceylon Managing Director – Shyam Sathasivam and Watawala Tea Ceylon CEO – Surith Perera, were present to applaud the achievements of the top performers together with the 200 plus employees of the company. The Guest Speaker for the event was Watawala Plantations PLC Director and Managing Director of Pyramid Lanka Pvt Ltd – Mohamed Sajjad Mawzoon.
The Chairman’s Trophy, the most prestigious award given at the ceremony in recognition of outstanding performance based on a number of diverse criteria, awarded to individual Sales Personnel, Area Managers and the team was presented respectively to R. M. Sumanathilake, Danesh Perera and the Colombo Suburbs Team. The ‘Green Blazer’, given to outstanding sales personnel from the key territories, was presented to R.M. Sumanathilake and D.P.N.A.S. Kumara – bringing the total number of ‘Green Blazer’ award winners in the company to six.
Besides celebrating the company’s achievements during the previous year and rewarding the top performers, the Annual Convention was used to set the tone for the future – with particular emphasis on speed.
Watawala Tea Ceylon Ltd, a joint venture between Sunshine Holdings PLC, TATA Global Beverages and Pyramid Wilmar Plantations Pvt Ltd, markets three distinct brands of Tea: ‘Zesta’, ‘Watawala Tea’ and ‘Ran Kahata.’ The largest branded tea company in the country in terms of consumer preference at present, Watawala Tea Ceylon also operates gift tea boutiques and is also involved in tea exports, earning much needed foreign revenue for the country. Apart from tea, the company also markets Zest bottled water.
Photo captions: (Above) The winner of the Chairman’s Trophy (awarded to sales personnel), R.M. Sumanathilake (extreme right) receiving the trophy and the prize. The others in the picture are (from left) Watawala Tea Ceylon CEO – Surith Perera, Watawala Tea Ceylon Managing Director – Shyam Sathasivam and Sunshine Holdings PLC Group Managing Director – Vish Govindasamy