New investments, processes at Keells to strengthen freshness promise

• New processes being implemented: Date life codes, traceability mechanism, 
• Investment in new equipment: Shift from manual operations to a better process to ensure freshness is retained 
• Cooked food: Launch of new dinner range to provide customers a convenient offering at reasonable prices 
• Bakery: Expansion of range in line with current customer needs
• Keells re-establishes freshness guarantee or double your money back

Having given a ‘Freshness Guarantee’ or double your money back promise in 2018, Keells continues to invest in new processes, equipment and innovations to provide customers the best in freshness and quality. Continuing on its journey of freshness, Keells has looked at all possible improvements needed in the process to retain freshness. Hence investments in new equipment and processes have been implemented to ensure that consistency is maintained in freshness.

The produce is sourced locally from six vegetable and fruit collection centres located across the country that work closely with the farming community to ensure the quality of the produce is up to a specific standard. Without stopping there, the new processes introduced look at a ‘Date Life Code,’ whereby each crate of produce comes with a sticker stating the number of days the product should be kept at stores for sale. This in turn will help the displays to be constantly fresh to ensure the produce customers select from is the best. 

A ‘Traceability mechanism’ has also been introduced which provides visibility regarding the source of the produce. This helps Keells identify quality issues and track them to the source, rectify and improve future harvests and produce that are offered to customers. 

These investments in innovation be it equipment or processes by Keells is in line with it continually raising the bar in providing freshness. “We at Keells have made a promise to the nation to provide the freshest quality food that lives up to the highest standards. This is why we are constantly introducing new innovations, initiatives and processes to our operations to ensure we in fact live up to improving the quality of life for the nation,” said John Keells Group President Retail Charitha Subasinghe.

Keells has always believed in continually listening to customers and this has paved way for Keells to introduce a new range of popular Sri Lankan items such as pittu, parata, thosai and idly with curries and chutneys available at selected stores. This new dinner range will help customers purchase and enjoy their regular dinner items made to hygienic standards without having to worry about any added MSG as Keells prepared food does not have any. 

Popular bakery products such as doughnuts, cinnamon rolls, plain and chocolate croissants will now be made available in multipacks to provide convenience for sharing with family or friends. These are also now priced slightly less than individual items to provide added value to customers. Freshly made full pizzas ready in 20min to kottu and freshly baked bread are some of the special offerings at a Keells bakery. 

From the farm gate to the customer, a stringent three-stage quality process is followed to ensure produce is selected, sorted and only the best is sent to store for the customers. The meals and bakery products made in store are made and baked fresh in store by trained chefs to ensure the best of quality. This is not the end of this journey as Keells continues to constantly improve the standards of freshness and quality. 

A subsidiary of John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH), Sri Lanka’s largest listed conglomerate in the Colombo Stock Exchange operating over 70 companies in seven diverse industry sectors. JKH provides employment to over 13,000 persons and has been ranked as Sri Lanka’s ‘Most Respected Entity’ for 13 years. Whilst being a full member of the World Economic Forum and a Member of the UN Global Compact, JKH drives its vision of ‘empowering the nation for tomorrow’, through the John Keells Foundation.