Introduction

I am an ordinary farmer learning to market our tea crop without middlemen so that I can retain in my country the earnings which are taken away by traders, leaving us poor. My earnings are shared with my workers and the wider community and reinvested to make tea a sustainable industry. I have made it my duty to extend a helping hand to others and the community. If we learn to care and share with others, we will spread happiness, not create envy. If we learn to share our wealth, our world will be a far happier place for all. Merrill J Fernando

The story of Merrill J Fernando’s Dilmah Tea Company is one that impresses and inspires, encourages and heartens. It is a story of determination and tenacity, of unfailing vision and unwavering

focus. It is the story of how one man, against all the odds, found a way of changing an industry and improving thousands of lives.

Dilmah is the most successful company in Sri Lanka, engaged in value addition to tea and the marketing of tea under its own global brand name. After 40 years as a large exporter and supplier of bulk raw tea and in just 26 years of marketing Dilmah branded tea (initially in Australia), it has become an international giant that markets its top end teas in more than 100 countries. The company was established in 1962 by Merrill J Fernando, an extraordinary man who determined very early in his career to change the way in which the Ceylon tea industry worked, to sell excellent

Ceylon tea, to keep the revenue from those sales inside Ceylon rather than watching it go directly into the bank accounts of foreign companies, and to help those worse off than himself. When he started his career in tea in the 1950s, the tea industry and trade remained the backbone of Ceylon’s economy and provided employment for almost a million people. But the industry was still almost entirely in the hands of the British and other multi-national companies. The trade was closed to locals although the government, both before and after Independence in 1948, made persistent requests to those foreign companies to recruit locals into the tea trade. The wealth earned from the production and trading of Ceylon tea continued to line the pockets of mainly sterling companies; the committees and associations that moulded policy and controlled the industry were made up of mostly foreign tea men; the fate of Ceylon tea was decided in London or by foreign planters and management companies based in Ceylon; prices were set at the London auctions; an attitude of colonial paternalism and patronage ran right through the Sri Lankan tea establishment.

In 1950, after eight years of agitation by the locals for the trade to be opened up to them, Merrill was one of six young men whom were selected to be trained as tea tasters with Mr O Peter Rust, tea taster to the Ceylon Tea Controller, the authority that supplied tea to the UK Food Ministry during the years following World War II. Upon completion of his training, he joined A F Jones & Co. Ltd., a British tea company in Colombo, spent a year in London in order to further his training, returned to Colombo, became a director of A F Jones and, when his employers decided to sell out and leave Sri Lanka, he arranged, together with two friends, to purchase the company.

A F Jones & Co made great progress under Merrill’s management and one of his unique achievements was winning the Russian tea business in 1958. But success can breed jealousy and envy, even within one’s own team, and Merrill began to face disagreements and deceit from one of his partners. A successful business requires complete focus from the person at the head and disputes only distract and create losses. So Merrill walked out of A F Jones & Co. Ltd. in 1962. The events that followed over the following six months remain the bitterest experiences of his business career but also provided the greatest opportunity of his life. He ventured out on his own into the big world of tea!

He followed in the footsteps of all other tea companies in exporting and supplying tea in bulk to blenders and packers around the world. He realised, however, that he was himself helping foreigners to take away profits from his country but was helpless to do anything about it. His business continued to grow and he was recognised for his dedication and commitment to the tea industry. The quality of service provide by Merrill J Fernando Co. Ltd. attracted many of the big international tea companies to turn to him for some of their supplies, even though they had their own branch offices or established agents in the country.

During his training in Mincing Lane, London, Merrill realised that Ceylon tea was used sparingly due to its high cost and that the growing influence of brand names was beginning to replace quality! So he dreamt that some day he would market his own brand of pure Ceylon tea, packed fresh at source, and would bring quality, freshness and integrity back to tea. As his business grew, his dream began to haunt him! From that point on, he made up his mind that he would do what he could to market only high quality Ceylon tea, to make Ceylon tea a success around the world, to break the hold that foreign companies had on the Ceylon trade, to work, if necessary, outside the framework that had been established by the early traders and to ensure that his employees were fairly treated and rewarded for their contribution to the company’s success. With an honesty, integrity and a genuine concern for others, Merrill dreamt of building a business that would improve the lives of fellow Sri Lankan citizens, that would make Sri Lanka a better place and would provide the finest tea on earth to consumers around the world.

And so in 1962, he laid the foundation for the MJF Charitable Foundation whose aim is to share company profits with those in need. Over the years, the Foundation has helped both company employees and those in the wider community - the sick in need of medical care, the poor who require education, those who need health care, isolated

communities who have little contact with the outside world, enterprising individuals who dream of setting up small businesses, deprived children, abused women, victims of the 2004 Tsunami, and those affected by the war between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government.

By keeping the company in the guiding hands of the Fernando family, Merrill and his two sons, Dilhan and Malik, have been able to build an incredibly successful organisation while consistently following those very strongly-held principles of ethical trading. This is the most important aspect of Dilmah and has underpinned the company’s work since long before ethical trading became an issue for other traders and for consumers. Unlike other large companies who create wealth that goes straight into shareholders’ pockets, Dilmah creates wealth that is given back to the people of Sri Lanka.

The Dilmah philosophy is one of ‘fair trade’ - but not just as a label on tea packets in supermarkets telling consumers that profits from the product will go back to the workers in the country where tea is grown. Merrill J Fernando’s ‘fair trade’ is in his ethically produced Dilmah tea. This means paying the pluckers and factory workers a fair wage for their work and the farmers a fair price for their crop. Only then will the world become a fairer place for everyone to live in. But sometimes, people also need a helping hand and the spirit of kindness and understanding and the willingness to offer help to those in need lie at the heart of the company’s work.

Why does Dilmah work as it does? What has driven Merrill over the years to help so many? His own words explain:

“We come into this world with nothing and we leave with nothing. The wealth some of us acquire is owed to the efforts and cooperation of many others around us. Let us therefore share that wealth, while we are still around, so that the goodwill and contentment created thereby, may make our world a happier place for others too. I always remember a little message given me by a friend many years ago which said, ‘I shall pass this way but once; any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do so now. Let me not defer or neglect, for I shall never pass this way again.