“Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC Wins Sri Lanka National Quality Award for Large Scale Category”
The Sri Lanka National Quality Award (SLNQA) ceremony, hosted by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI), came to a dazzling conclusion, with many businesses and organisations recognised and honoured for their outstanding quality standards and processes. Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC is the winner of the Manufacturing – Large category.
This year marks the plantation’s entry into the SLNQA. The evaluation for entrants follows a stringent protocol and follows the criteria used for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the USA. The participants are scrutinised under seven categories - leadership; strategic planning; customer focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; workforce focus; operations focus; and results (ie: product performance and process effectiveness, customers, workforce, leadership and governance, and financial and market performance.
Speaking of the remarkable achievement within the first year of participation, Dr. Roshan Rajadurai – Managing Director and Mr. Senaka Alawattegama – Director/ CEO, Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC, commented that it is a milestone event for the company to receive this national-level recognition.
Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC was established in 1992 following the privatization programme the government of Sri Lanka initiated at the time. The company owns 16 plantations
under its banner, all of which date back to the late 19th century.
Since its establishment as a private plantation company, Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC has grown to become one of the premier tea plantation brands on the island. It is also one of the most awarded plantation companies in Sri Lanka. In 2001, the Great Western Estate - one of its tea estates - received the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification. In 2006, Kiruwanaganga Estate became an ISO 22000:2005 certified tea factory, creating another milestone event, as it was the
first time a tea factory received the certification in Sri Lanka. The tea estates under the Talawakelle banner acquired the Rainforest Alliance certification in 2011, while several of its tea factories and estates received ISO certifications in the coming years.
Becoming the “Manufacturing - Large” category at the SLNQA ceremony is “a result of the commitment, Total Systems Management, team effort and long-term vision of the company,” Dr. Roshan Rajadurai explained. “This is the highest recognition we received at the national level for our quality management system,” he said.
He sees the achievement as having a long-term impact on the company’s investments, brand value, and goodwill in the market. He further anticipates the long-term continuous aspects of streamlining the quality processes giving the company a competitive advantage.
“This will be a crucial point for our competitor advantage,” he elaborated, “We are competing with other companies and our quality standards and recognition will boost our success when we attend the auctions since the buyers also consider those aspects of the quality of the tea as well”.
Talawakelle Tea Estates dominates the market as part of a bigger machine. The company also falls under the ‘Ceylon Tea’ banner in the international market, and Dr. Roshan Rajadurai asserted that Ceylon Tea continues to be a worldfamous, ethical and sustainable tea brand with one of the cleanest tea leaves.
“We are still maintaining our quality standards,” he continued, explaining Ceylon Tea’s strengths, “Its high quality, sustainability and ethical practices justify our brand name and brand value. Continuous improvements and maintaining quality standards are also crucial, however”.
“This kind of award ceremonies, recognition and continuous standardisation, therefore, is also very important for players in the tea industry to continue operations”.
He stated that as Sri Lanka has a considerably small number of global brands, including Ceylon Tea, it is imperative to continuously improve quality standards and management practices to be a competitive brand in the global market.
However, the quality of Ceylon Tea can be negatively impacted if low-quality products saturate the market. Competing with low-quality, cheap products is a challenge that the tea industry is facing as the cost of production is significantly higher.
“Competing with cheap products is difficult because of implementations, processes and other cost concerns,” Mr. Senaka Alawattegama disclosed. “Competing with low prices is not easy, and therefore maintaining our quality is a key challenge because prices keep increasing across the supply chain, especially the agrochemicals, machinery and other necessary goods for tea production”.
The high production is only one aspect of the challenges that tea-growing communities face at a national and international level. COVID-19 and the following economic crisis also impacted the growth of the tea industry significantly.
However, Mr. Senaka Alawattegama stated that the strong management practices that Talawakelle Tea Estates implemented at the onset of the pandemic largely contributed to crisis management. “We had very limited experience with regards to COVID-19,” he recalled, as the worldwide pandemic was an unexpected crisis that led to global lockdowns resulting in many sectors being forced to slow or cease their operations for months.
“From the initial stage, we planned and developed contingency plans,” Dr. Roshan Rajadurai said. “We tried to identify the trends and the state of the global market. After that came predicting and preparing our processes. Those are the key actions we took”.
He sees both the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis that followed as opportunities that enabled the company to improve and implement its risk management processes. Forecasting the potential risks allowed the company to mitigate several challenges.
“We had some above average and credible management practices,” he mentioned, crediting the risk management and mitigation processes for also contributing to the company’s present success.
“We have a clear target and business strategies,” Mr. Senaka Alawattegama commented, looking towards the future of the company. “We are a purpose-driven organisation and we will continue to strive to achieve our purpose statement creating a better future”.
Talawakelle Tea Estates will also implement continuous improvements to its quality processes and management as well as production so that the company can meaningfully contribute towards the country’s economic growth. The company is exploring the potential for expanding into other commercial crops like cinnamon and coconut. The expansion is to increase Sri Lankan exports within the global community.
Sustainability will also take centre stage for the company as it moves forward. The company plans to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30-50%, which is just one of its goals to minimise climate change. The company currently uses renewable energy sources including hydro and solar power to operate its factories. Dr. Roshan Rajadurai revealed that there are plans to further increase its renewable power usage.
Community upliftment is another aspect Talawakella will focus on, to improve the living conditions within the plantation sector.
Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC was established in 1992 following the privatization programme the government of Sri Lanka initiated at the time. The company owns 16 plantations under its banner, all of which date back to the late 19th century