Dilmah

Dilmah (Ceylon Tea Services PLC)
Founded 1988 (1988)
Headquarters Peliyagoda, Sri Lanka
Key people
 Merrill J Fernando, Malik J. Fernando, Dilhan C. Fernando, Himendra Ranaweera, Roshan Tissaaratchy, Minette Perera,
Products Ceylon Tea, Flavoured Tea, Green Tea, Speciality Tea, herbal infusions, Masala Chai, Watte Single Estate Tea www.watteseries.com, White Tea, Real Iced Tea
Website http://www.dilmahtea.com/

Dilmah is Sri Lanka's most recognised international brand of tea.[1] The company was founded in 1988 by Merrill J Fernando. The name Dilmah was chosen by combining the first names of Fernando's sons Dilhan and Malik. It is available in over 100 countries including Estonia, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Lithuania, Pakistan, Poland, Russia, Hungary, Canada, Chile, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, the United States and New Zealand. In 2009 it was considered that Dilmah was the sixth-largest tea brand in the world.[2]

History

The Company's founder, Merril Fernando, was born in 1930 in the village of Pallansena, near Negombo. He moved to Colombo, where he became one of the Ceylonese tea tasters, training at Mincing Lane, London.

In 1974 Fernando bought his first few tea estates to try his hand at producing Sri Lankan tea, and in 1981 he founded Ceylon Tea Services Limited.

In 1985, Merril Fernando convinced the Australian supermarket retailer Coles to stock his brand of tea, Dilmah. He spoke to a Coles buyer about stocking his tea and eventually won him over. In 1988 a Melbourne Coles store started stocking Dilmah on its shelves. It eventually spread to 35 other Coles stores in Victoria and then Woolworths started selling the product as well. Dilmah later exported the tea to New Zealand, where it’s currently the top-selling brand,[3] and also to Europe and North America. When the tea brand launched in Australia in 1988 an advertisement was created and aired on national television. Today Australia makes up 10 percent of Dilmah's global annual retail sales.[4] In September 2009 Ceylon Tea Services, Dilmah’s parent company, earned US$5.2 million on US$19.7 million in revenue, which was up from profits of US$1.3 million, on US$18.6 million in revenue the year before.[2]

25 year anniversary

June 2013, marked 25 years of the Dilmah tea brand in Australia. As part of the celebration, Dilmah launched "tea caps" that are filled with hand picked tea leaves from specific regions in Sri Lanka that are designed to fit in Nespresso coffee machines. These "tea caps" were released in selected supermarkets around the country. The company also released two new advertisements to promote the "tea caps" one which promoted the Earl Grey "tea caps" and another that promoted the English Breakfast "tea caps". The advertisements feature Peter Kuruvita an Australian chef and restaurateur of Sri Lankan heritage as the Australian ambassador for the brand. The advertisements began airing on 1 July 2013.[5][6]

References

  1. ↑ Rosenfeld, Cynthia (11 February 2015). "Tea in Sri Lanka: Travelers take sips steeped history". CNN. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  2. 1 2 Bajaj, Vikas (8 January 2010). "A Sri Lankan Underdog Battles Global Tea Giants". The New York Times. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  3. ↑ Khona, Minnal (6 June 2013). "People: The Dilmah story". India Link. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  4. ↑ "Dilmah founder draws on 25 years of tea business". BRW. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  5. ↑ "Dilmah targets younger market". B&T. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  6. ↑ "Dilmah to launch 'tea cap' in Australia". AFN Thought for Food. Retrieved 8 July 2013.


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