Talawakelle Tea Estate wins gold at CA Annual Report Awards

Hayleys Plc owned Talawakelle Tea Estates Plc (TTE Plc) was honoured with a gold award under the Plantation Companies category for the third successive year by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka at the 52nd Annual Report Awards ceremony held on 6 December at the Waters Edge. 

This year’s awards for excellence in annual reporting, in keeping with the theme of ‘Precision Exemplified’, encouraged and recognised a search for the most cohesive, clear and customised annual report that reflects an entity’s operations while going beyond the statutory boundaries of reporting. This is Talawakelle’s third fully integrated report covering financial highlights, stakeholder engagement, strategy, risk management, corporate governance, environmental management, product responsibility, people and social development and a detailed management discussion and analysis, which includes a commentary on operational performance and the company’s contribution to the national economy.   

Commenting on the achievement, Managing Director Roshan Rajadurai said: “This recognition stands as a testament to Talawakelle Tea Estates Plc’s commitment to transparency and accountability to its stakeholders, which contributes to the long-term success and sustainability of the company. Our corporate governance framework ensures transparency and accountability to the regulators as well as to all our stakeholders including the public. Winning this award for three consecutive years is an affirmation of maintaining consistency of the best practices in all these areas.”

TTE Plc was adjudged the winner under the Agricultural Sector for Best Presented Annual Report Awards and SAARC Anniversary Awards for Corporate Governance Disclosures 2014 at the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) in Lahore, Pakistan.

TTE Plc was also bestowed with a silver in the Agriculture and Plantations Sector at the National Business Excellence Awards recently, clearly demonstrating its commitment towards implementing the best sustainable management practices and achieving performance excellence. 

Two of the company’s estates Radella and Deniyaya won silver and merit awards respectively under the Food and Beverages category at the National Green Awards ceremony held in October 2016.

Incorporated in 1992, TTE Plc is a leading Regional Plantation Company (RPC) managing 17 tea estates in both high and low grown elevations and producing the finest Dimbulla and Ruhuna specialty teas. With a human resource base of 8,287 people and a land extent of 6,491.55 hectares, the company produces over 7.0 million kg of black orthodox tea as well as green tea annually.

TTE Plc pioneered the ‘quality’ and ‘food safety’ concepts in the tea industry which were endorsed by Great Western achieving the first HACCP certification in the industry in 2001 and Kiruwanaganga achieving the first ISO 22000 Food Safety certification among all food processing factories in the country in 2006. 

All operational factories of the company are now ISO 22000 FSMS certified. The quality of our products is the key business driver and strategy to ensure premium quality which has clearly set the benchmark within a competitive industry. The company’s top ranking in terms of the prices fetched at the Colombo Tea Auctions for Low Grown and Western High Grown categories among all Regional Plantation Companies for 11 consecutive years testifies to its drive for quality. 

‘Home for every plantation worker’ is the company’s holistic program designed to address and enhance social, health and welfare on all TTE Plc estates. This integrated program aims to develop the living environment through infrastructure development of basic amenities, capacity development, health and nutrition programs and youth empowerment to improve the standards and quality of life of the resident communities across all estates.  The company has successfully implemented the Rainforest Alliance Sustainable Agriculture Programme since 2011, which is an internationally recognised certification program integrating the best social, environmental and ethical management practices in daily operations. The Rainforest standard follows 10 universal principles of sustainable agriculture, which are built on three pillars – the environment, the economy and social justice.