CBL Wins the Manufacturing – Large Award at the Sri Lanka National Quality Awards
Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL), the proud owner of flagship brand Munchee, has once again proven its excellence by securing the Sri Lanka National Quality Award (SLNQA) in the Large Scale – Manufacturing category for the fourth consecutive year. This underscores CBL's unwavering commitment to achieving comprehensive excellence in quality management.
This prestigious award, organised and executed by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI), is presented only once every five years for an organisation, adhering to the globally acclaimed criteria of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the USA.
CBL Munchee's accomplishment of this prestigious award further solidifies the brand’s position as a leader in the food manufacturing sector in Sri Lanka. The SLNQA award is beneficial as it offers an enhanced reputation in the local and international marketplace, a competitive advantage and a testament to the company's pursuit of excellence in delivering superior quality products to customers worldwide. This prestigious award will support CBL Munchee in strengthening its brand position by demonstrating its business excellence.
In presenting the National Quality Award, the organisers followed rigorous criteria when evaluating and selecting winners such as leadership, Strategy, workforce, operation, measurement analysis and knowledge management, customer focus etc., to maintain the integrity of the award ensuring all aspects of quality are assessed.
The SLNQA award demonstrates the tireless efforts and dedication of CBL’s team to uphold the highest standards of quality. As the industry evolves and adds various standards and requirements, it signifies a company’s commitment to maintaining the highest standards in every aspect of the business. The leadership and direction that have been given by the top management, led by the Group Chairman, stimulated this achievement, and the entire team works as “One Team” to sustain the highest level of standards throughout the business process, being a role model in the industry.
CBL has been certified with ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management System), ISO 22000: 2018 (Food Safety Management System), ISO 14001:2015 (Environmental Management System), BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 and FSSC 22000 V5.1 (two GFSI benchmarked certifications for food safety), ISO 45001:2018 (Occupational Health and Management System), and SLS 251:2010 (Product Certification).
In addition, the CBL site has been inspected and verified by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US-FDA), before approving to export of its products to the USA market.
Organisational recognition for quality standards and procedures is paramount for building customer trust, staying competitive, and ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. It fosters operational efficiency, mitigates risks, and enhances employee morale, contributing to a positive brand image and reputation.
Additionally, it opens doors for global expansion opportunities and demonstrates a commitment to continuous improvement in an ever-evolving business landscape.
Thus, quality is one of the core values of the business that the company will never compromise. Employees at every level have a better understanding of their role in delivering an excellent, quality, and safe product to their customers. Communication plays an undeniable role in fostering a sustainable, quality culture, ensuring that the company’s strategy is received and understood by all employees within the organisation.
The TQM (total quality management) approach is another step that has been taken by the company to align its process with worldclass standards. It is a structured approach that focuses on improving the quality of the process and products through continual improvements, focusing on both internal and external customer satisfaction.
Munchee, as a truly Sri Lankan brand, has been focusing on ensuring its product and process quality by following many practices and standards since its inception. Those practices and standards have now become the norms of the biscuit industry. Almost 30 years ago, CBL Munchee became the first SLS-certified biscuit brand in Sri Lanka in 1994. Since then, as the leader in the industry, the brand has closely worked with SLSI for quality, food safety, and environmental-related management system certifications. This reflects Munchee’s consistent concern for stringent quality standards, which has enabled the brand to command the highest level of confidence from both local and international markets.
The economic hardships faced by the country have posed several challenges to the food industry. One of the key challenges is sourcing suppliers for high-quality raw materials at reasonable prices, which is extremely important for manufacturers like CBL, who never expect to compromise the quality standards of the final product. Further, during the past few years, Sri Lankan consumers have become more price-sensitive, resulting in a reluctance among manufacturers to make significant price changes. And to overcome this issue, manufacturers always tend to go for cost-effective alternative approaches. Hence, under these conditions, maintaining quality standards with cost-effective approaches is a challenging task that the Sri Lankan industries have to overcome.
However, the biscuit industry is poised for a transformative shift, evolving beyond a mere snack to become a viable meal replacement. CBL’s strategic vision involves introducing innovative products that prioritise packed quality, hygiene, and nutritional value. This approach aims to cater to the demands of busy lifestyles, positioning biscuits as a convenient and nutritious alternative to traditional meals. The future of this category hinges on the manufacturers’ commitment to these groundbreaking innovations.
Sri Lanka is internationally renowned for the country’s iconic product, “Ceylon Tea,” which is distinguished among competitors because of its quality. However, Sri Lanka has a huge potential to improve their product range further to maximize the country’s presence and be perceived as a high-quality producer by consumers. CBL Munchee has gone through a progressive plan to explore this potential with a wide range of products, complying with world-class quality standards, resulting in a global presence as a high-quality brand. This journey never ends, and there are always unexplored potentials within the international market for further growth, which applies to CBL Munchee along with all Sri Lankan manufacturers.
Munchee biscuits have gained acceptance in over 65 countries primarily due to the brand's unwavering commitment to quality and innovation. Whether sold under the Munchee label or through private labelling, all biscuits adhere to the same stringent quality standards. This consistency extends from products sold in local markets to those designated for export. Maintaining uniform quality at all stages is a priority, ensuring that the brand's reputation is upheld globally. Notably, Munchee recently achieved recognition with the prestigious BRCAA+ certification, marking it as the sole local biscuit manufacturer to attain such a distinguished reputation.
CBL's history dates back to the 1930s when Mr Simon Wickramasingha took over a small handmade biscuit factory from a local businessman named Williams at a time when all other biscuits in the local market were imported. He established that business as Williams Confectionery Limited in 1939 with 10 employees.
In 1967, Mineka Wickramasingha developed a unique recipe for a high-protein nutritional biscuit that met the requirements of CARE U.S.A. and the Sri Lankan Government, which were seeking supplement nutrition for over 1.3 million Sri Lankan schoolchildren.
CBL was established and began its production in 1968, expanding from the 1-ton Williams' plant to an 8-ton plant within six weeks of starting the business at the new manufacturing site at Pannipitiya, where it is located today. And it was also the cradle of its flagship brand, Munchee.
CBL is strengthened with worldclass equipment and the latest technological advancements in work processes, holding GFSI benchmarked food safety management system certifications in order to certify the highest quality of products to its consumers, and of processes to its stakeholders.
Being at the forefront of the food manufacturing industry, CBL has achieved phenomenal growth in value creation and business sustainability, and it always inculcates its values of “Caring, Quality, Innovation, and Integrity” across all stakeholders. Celebrating its 55th anniversary this year, CBL proudly looks at its future with the purpose “of creating enriching moments of happiness for people, by being a caring global entity, with a true Sri Lankan identity”.