Munchee leads the way, while upholding its social responsibility
The winning producer of the Munchee range of biscuits, Ceylon Biscuits Limited. (CBL) has been in the forefront for decades in terms of taste, quality and value. The company that is responsible for ensuring the increase of biscuit manufacturing in Sri Lanka has continuously led the market for the entire past decade. Today with ownership of more than 60% in the local market CBL is the market leader in all its productions. With its product portfolio spread across more than 40 countries worldwide the company has indeed brought pride to the nation with its quality range of products.
A company that lends its hands to CSR by way of giving back to the country and its people CBL has always committed to share the benefits of its success with the community it operates in. The company which is highly concerned about the well being of not only its staff but also the society in general has been recognized for its efforts at many Local and International platforms. Talking to the Sunday Times Mr. Nandanawickramage, Group Director / Head of Marketing and Sales stated that, "Education is the key area that we have to look at because we believe that the future of this country lies in the quality of the people. If the people are not educated properly the consumer we have will not be a quality consumer. There's no point in the company improving the quality of their product range if the consumer perceptions are at a low level."
Unlike many other corporate and state promises CBL clean drinking water to constructing bridges, roads, IT laboratories, public and school libraries and community health centers we have worked hand in hand with the relevant beneficiaries and fulfilled their needs which were mere dreams before our involvement. These are some of the few corporate social responsibility projects we did. We always believe in returning a considerable part of our profits to develop the society. Developing Sri Lanka and its people is part of our responsibility and our staff volunteer to participate in such projects sacrificing their weekends and holidays. The value generation during this programme through staff and community participation is really encouraging," stated Mr. Wickramage
In conclusion Mr. Wickramage added that "We at CBL believe in eradicating the cause of charity. Thus we are committed as Sri Lankans to join hands with our own community to develop the country and to eradicate the cause of charity. We at CBL take pride in what we do and we dedicate our success to the people of this Paradise Island."
- walks the talk and leads by example. "Muncheetikirishishyadara " the largest education support programme conducted by a private sector company in the country, aimed at supporting deserving children from less privileged families and prevention of school dropouts is one such initiative of CBL. To date thousands of children have been able to continue their education with the promise of a bright future in spite of immense financial hardships affecting their families. Some of the school dropouts who were placed back in schools and financially supported by Munchee at the age of 10 years are now completing their higher education in the Medical colleges and other universities thanks to CBL. "Imagine if we had not come forward to support these children where would they be now? They would grow up with grievances and eventually become a problem to society." Commented Mr. Wickramage
Continuing its commitment to upgrade the education standards of the future generation, the company facilitates weekly workshops for children sitting for government examinations such as Year 5 scholarships, GCE O'level and A'level examinations. This initiative was able to attract more that 75000 children last year and Mr. Wickramage believes that they will be able to provide the service to many more children this year. During the same initiative special programmes are held for parents guiding them as to how they could support their Childs future by providing them quality education. "It is the rural child who needs more attention and additional workshops to prepare for the examinations as they lack facilities in the schools and sometimes even proper teachers, but they do not have the finances to get private tuition. The urban child has everything and they compete with the rural child for a place in a better school or even a place in the university. Our workshops which are conducted with the support of resource personnel from the NIE in rural areas help these needy children to fulfill their dreams. Annually, the beneficiaries are as much as 75,000 for year 5 scholarship workshops, 30,000 for GCE O'level and 15,000 for GCE A'level workshops," added the Group Director.
Ceylon Biscuits takes its social responsibility towards the community very seriously. "Muncheesamagagamatasar ana" is one such concept developed by CBL to uplift the living standards of the Sri Lankan rural folk. Areas of public needs are identified by the sales force of Munchee who work at the grassroots of the country. Later these projects are evaluated by a committee and then put into action by the Munchee workforce who takes great pleasure in supporting community upliftment. The company has been able to complete more that 40 projects under this flagship initiative and look towards completing many other sustainable and continuous improvement projects around the country in the coming year. "From providing