Litro Gas Lanka wins Gold for COVID-19 Recovery Excellence at SLIM Restart Resilience Awards 2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic started impacting businesses and consumer buying patterns across Sri Lanka and the world, organisations have had to adapt operational methodologies and transform strategies formulated for customer outreach initiatives.

The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) Restart Resilience Awards 2020 held recently at BMICH, Colombo has set a new standard in recognising organisations in the public and private sectors who not only overcame the COVID-19 challenges but also succeeded in reengineering processes while delivering an optimum level of service during the initial COVID-19 lockdown and beyond.

Litro Gas Lanka Ltd. carried top honours at this prestigious event which was attended by a distinguished gathering.

Honoured under the Service Sector, Large Organization (Public Sector) category, Litro Gas Lanka Limited was crowned Gold, showcasing the company’s exceptional and outstanding COVID-19 recovery strategy, highlighting a path of exceptional resilience and strength in overcoming adversity.

Commenting on the award, Litro Gas Lanka Chairman and CEO Anil Koswatte said that being thus recognised for COVID-19 resilience was a strong affirmation of the commitment and the dedication shown by the Litro Gas Lanka team in meeting customer needs and ensuring a seamless supply during the lockdown, while extending a great economic benefit of stable pricing.

“As a State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) conscious of social and economic obligations to the people, Litro Gas Lanka was able to rise to the challenge and deployed several mechanisms that took customer engagement outside the traditional system. Innovations such as introducing an easy four digit helpline 1311 for home deliveries and partnerships with delivery apps such as PickMe Food were initiated and carried out.”

Yet another tech based innovation was the launch of the Litro Gas home delivery mobile app, which assured the consumers an uninterrupted supply of LPG.

“As envisioned in the ‘Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour’ national policy framework of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, under the guidance of Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mahinda Rajapaksa and Presidential Task Force Head Basil Rajapaksa, Litro Gas Lanka is aware of the need to ensure that the price of LPG as an essential commodity is stabilised to deliver economic value to the community,” he reiterated.

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 impacted economic environment, Litro Gas Lanka recorded an organic growth of 4% in sales and a 4% increase in market share, driving up their market share to 76%. 

As the national LPG provider, Litro Gas Lanka maintains a strong network consisting of 14,000 points-of-sale, 1,500 home delivery hubs and 42 distributors, delivering LPG to homes and industrial operations throughout the country.

Maintaining COVID-19 and industry safety protocols remain a key area for all operations, says Litro Gas Lanka Director – Sales and Marketing/Corporate Affairs Janaka Pathirathna. “The company’s COVID-19 protocols has been certified by SLS 1672: 2020 by Sri Lanka Standards Institute and Litro Gas was the first State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) to have received this recognition which was given for being compliant with the SLS COVID-19 safety management systems requirements for organisations. The company also won global honours with the ARGUS/WLPGA Global Award last year for successful management of COVID-19.”

As a company with a turnover of Rs. 45 billion, Litro Gas Lanka takes pride in a customer centric work ethic, delivered through a consistent and committed effort of the Litro Gas Lanka team who went the extra mile to ensure that over four million Sri Lankan households were supplied with their cooking energy throughout the lockdown and beyond, he adds.

“We believe that recognising Sri Lankan organisations that have risen above the COVID-19 economic impact is a noteworthy gesture by SLIM as a leading stakeholder in the country’s marketing industry. To their credit, they have been able to stage such a significant event with all relevant COVID-19 and health sector protocols in place.”