CBL: 900% growth in last decade

Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL)'s Distributor Convention and Star Awards held recently, drew in more than 1200 invitees consisting of distributors from all parts of the country, foreign and local business partners, sales staff and employees.

CBL Sales Star of the year N. Azardeen, receiving his award from Chairman, CBL M.P. Wickramasingha, at the CBL Distributor Convention and Star Awards ceremony. Also in the picture are Group Director/Head of Marketing and Sales Nandana Wickramage (Extreme left), General Manager Sales I.M. Khan (second from right) and Director/General Manager- Plenty Foods (Pvt) Ltd. Shammi Karunaratne.

Sales teams of all product ranges including Ritzbury and Tiara Cakes, Munchee, Samaposha and Lanka Soy presented sales performances and discussed success stories.

Despite the recession, all categories disclosed growth in sales in the past year.

Group Director and Head of Sales and Marketing Nandana Wickramage said, "it's been a tough decade for most businesses.

We must look for ways to improve business and plan for an economic rebound".

On the theme 'Extreme Focus' CBL presented a flashback of the numerous awards won for corporate and brand excellence.

The CBL group won an impressive number of awards during the year, including the coveted 'Brand Excellence Award' with Munchee hailed as 'Product brand of the year'.

The evening saw the launch of 12 new products emphasizing the groups association with innovation and variety.

Also presented were CBL's flagship Corporate Social Responsibility projects including 'Munchee Tikiri Shishyadara' scholarship scheme for children, Farmer Backward Integration and the 'Munchee Samaga Gamata Sarana'.

The CBL Star Award was won by N. Azardeen of Anuradhapura who is a Munchee sales representative counting six years service. Azardeen was recognised for his outstanding sales prowess.

The group saluted their 550 strong field sales force and the network of distributors islandwide, encouraging them to work towards the company's estimated sales growth of 22% in the coming year the theme for which is Beyond Excellence.