Akbar flavours draw Presidential Export Awards

Hiran H. SENEWIRATNE

One of the leading tea exporters in Sri Lanka, Akbar Brothers Group won three Presidential Export Awards at a ceremony held at the Presidential Secretariat recently.

“The awards bear testimony to the Company’s relentless pursuit of adding values to the exports of Sri Lanka teas by branding, quality improvement and continuous innovations,” its Chairman Abbas Akbarally said.

The awards were handed over by the President Mahinda Rajapaksa for outstanding export performances.

The special award for the “Best Sri Lanka Brand Exporter”, the special award for the “Exporter to the highest number of Destinations” and the merit award for the “Exports of Tea in Value-Added Form” were the three awards won by the group.

“At present Sri Lanka produces 35 per cent value added tea and 65 per cent bulk tea for the export market. With the increase of value added tea produce for export of tea, the country could earn more foreign currency than bulk tea.

Therefore, this company now focus on value addition to face competition in the international market with new players to the trade.

“It is indeed a great honour for us to receive these awards from the President. It also exemplifies the commitment and dedication of our employees at all levels and the continued support from our customers worldwide”, Akbarally said.

Akbar Brothers Group markets annually forty four million kilograms of tea. On the basis of 2gms per cup, sixty million cups of Akbar Brothers’ teas are consumed on a daily worldwide, he said.

The consumer coverage extending to over 70 countries has today made Akbar tea products truly global, he said.

The employees of the company are efficient and committed to their duties which contribution has helped the company to win recognition of 72 countries importing Akbar tea.

In order to compete on equal footing with packers overseas, the Company has moved away from blending and packing teas by a manual process to a technologically driven fully automated blending and packing operations with enormous investments in production facilities for tea bagging and packaging operations.

Akbar Brothers Limited was incorporated in 1972. Significantly, in the same year, the father of these founders retired from the Chairmanship of Hebtulabhoys & Co. and joined his sons, making available his 40 years experience in the highest echelons of tea industry.

Moreover, the flourish thus set, kept up its momentum for the company to become the largest tea exporter. For 14 consecutive years since 1992, Akbar Brothers Limited has been acknowledged as the biggest Sri Lanka tea exporter. Further, “Akbar” became the flagship brand of finest Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka.

In pursuit of quality, Akbar Brothers state-of-the-art tea bagging and tea packing plants were accredited with ISO 9002 and HACCP certifications. Thus, the award won by “Akbar” as the “International Brand of the Year”, consecutively for four years since 2003, comes as yet another milestone in its brief history.

History of both Ceylon tea and Akbar Brothers family were destined to commence in the same era in Sri Lanka in the 1860’s. James Taylor, a Scotsman, planted the first tea sapling in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) in 1867 whilst in 1864, the great-grand father of present Akbar brothers’ Shaikh Hebtulabhoy, left his native India, and settled down in Sri Lanka. Shaikh Hebtulabhoy established a trading business.

His son Tyeabally Shaikh Hebtulabhoy pioneered the family in to the thriving Sri Lanka tea industry, by forming M.S. Hebtulabhoy & Company Limited.

It is said that very large purchases today, for the Middle East market in particular, are such firms as Hebtulabhoy & Co established in Colombo for generations, began shipping tea abroad in 1907.