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| Sunday, 25 July 2004 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Ceylon Royal Tea goes great guns in North America by Elmo Leonard
This is the story of a Sri Lankan tea company which has gained a firm foothold in USA and Canada in a few years of operations in the North American region. Now, this company, Ceylon Royal Tea and Supplies LLC, Atlanta, Georgia, invites local competitors into that part of the world, being its marketing strategy to improve the market share for tea in the predominantly coffee-drinking USA and Canada. In an exhibition of superior marketing skills, Ceylon Royal Tea even sells Indian and African teas, acknowledging it on the packs, but the outcome of it is that Ceylon tea makes inroads into the 90-percent coffee-drinking populace among the North American people. Studying the range of Ceylon Royal Tea, it is clear that where Ceylon tea is acknowledged, 100-percent Ceylon tea goes into the packs. Ceylon Royal Tea's Managing Director and CEO, Jaliya Wickramasuriya (44) based in Atlanta, Georgia, was on his once-in-four-months visit to his factory, in Homagama when we met him. His expanding factory will shortly be moved to the Homagama Industrial Zone.
Ceylon Royal Tea had 400 percent increase in sales in the past 12 months. While the Atlanta-based office is expanding and more U S personnel are being employed, the local sister company known as Ceylon Royal Tea and Supplies (Pvt) Ltd, Homagama, Sri Lanka, ably managed by its general manager, Pradeep Weerasinghe keeps the factory supply line moving to match supply with order. All value added teas make up the Ceylon Royal Tea range coming in 90 different pack designs. There are packs in metal caddies, cardboard packages, wooden packages, terracotta jars and reed packs. Chami is the main brand name and one pack had its topmost compartment with Gun Powder Green Tea. The other two divisions make up English Breakfast Tea and Peppermint Tea - all pure Ceylon teas. Then, there are the Chiran and Nature's Pot brands. We came across 30 different flavours from Ginger to Earl Grey to Peppermint to Gunpowder, Jasmine to Irish Breakfast, Orange Pekoe to Strawberry, Orange, Raspberry, Blueberry, Mango, Passion fruit, Pear, Kiwi, Cranberry Apple, Apple-Cinnamon to Black Berry teas. Jaliya Wickramasuriya and Pradeep Weerasinghe acknowledged Dilmah Chairman Merril J Fernando as their guru. The Dilmah brand of tea is Sri Lanka's great success story of a bold attempt to establish a local brand of tea in the outside world. It is the story of intelligent and innovative marketing which has established Dilmah as a leading brand in the world in the time-space of a generation.
Wickramasuriya cut his teeth in the tea business at the age of 18, working for Merril J Fernando. "Here, I gained the confidence to work in the tea business anywhere in the world," he said. Following 18 years at Dilmah, Wickramasuriya crossed over to the Sri Lankan company Standard Trading Co, Colombo. Hailing from the south of the island, the southern entrepreneurial bug in him kept titillating until in 1999, Jaliya Wickramasuriya decided to go it alone. After one year of exporting tea, based in Sri Lanka, on demand from buyers in the United States, Wickramasuriya based himself and his family in Atlanta (his wife Priyanga being a director). In the next year, Ceylon Royal Tea's turnover increased by 200 percent. "I believe in face-to-face selling and travel by plane a lot, to be with buyers," he said. Eliminating the middleman and selling direct to buyers (30 in USA) has kept the company's profit volumes high. While Wickramasuriya welcomes competitors in North America, he was not willing to divulge his turnover to guard against giving away information to contenders. Intelligent marketing has to do with `live-and-let-live' and even today, Wickramasuriya seeks advise from his guru Merril J Fernando, he said. Ceylon Royal Tea adapts the brand marketing strategy and Wickramasuriya's immediate aim is to further establish his brand names. Now, Ceylon Royal Tea is new into the Australian market while the brands are being introduced into Europe. They have also contacted buyers in Japan. |
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