Anverally and Sons wins Export Brand of the Year Bronze award

Above: Anverally and Sons Marketing Manager Danel Goonawardena receives the SLIM award and (below) Anverally and Sons Assistant Manager – Tea Tharindu Lorenso Hewage flanked by Goonawardena and Anverally and Sons Manager – Business Development Thiska Goonatilleka at the awards ceremony

Anverally and Sons Ltd., one of Sri Lanka’s oldest and most respected exporters of tea, received the Export Brand of the Year – Bronze award at the 2020 Brand Excellence Awards presented by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM).

The award was conferred on the company’s export brand ‘Al-Otuor’ – a distinctive Earl Grey flavoured tea ranked No. 1 in several Middle Eastern markets including Iraq and Libya, and believed to be popular for its strong fragrance, as borne out by its name, which translates to fragrance. 

The Company said the flavour of the tea is customised exclusively for the brand, making it a unique product.

This is the ninth occasion that Anverally & Sons was honoured at the SLIM Brand Excellence awards.

Commenting on this achievement, the company’s Chairman Mohamed Anverally said: “We are honoured to be a consistent winner at these awards. The concluded year was one of many challenges especially for exporters, with disruptions of production, logistics issues and the lockdowns in many overseas markets. Our ability to retain our market leadership in key markets speaks to the consistency in the quality of our products as well as the consumer loyalty we have built for the brands.”

Al-Otuor is one of the principal brands of Anverally and Sons, a company with a history of more than 130 years. Established in 1890 by the great grandfather of the present Chairman, Anverally and Sons employs more than 1,000 people today and exports Ceylon Tea to over 100 countries. 

The company’s selection of teas ranges from black, green, herbal, organic, iced, health and fruit teas in packing options of bulk, tea bags, packets, metal caddies, bottles, pouches, tea gifts and more. 

The Company has established a range of international brands such as Anverally Tea, Al-Otuor, Sultan, Tea4U, and Taj – that represent the regional preferences of tea.

An organisation driven by innovation, Anverally and Sons has also worked towards product diversification, expanding to Ceylon King Coconut Water and Ceylon Virgin Coconut oil. 

The Company said it plans to roll out innovations this year too in response to the dynamic external landscape to meet consumer needs.

In 2019, Anverally Teas was awarded a Presidential Export Award in the Tea sector, a National Chamber of Exporters (NCE) award in the ‘Extra Large’ category and a special award for the highest export turnover at the NCE awards. 

These accolades recognised a year of significant growth, expansion, value addition and new market development by Anverally Teas, which diversified its branded products portfolio, upgraded its warehousing facilities, and expanded its market share to South America, USA and the Far East.

Anverally and Sons operates from state-of-the-art facilities including modern warehouses, the latest tea packaging machines and storage facilities. 

The company has also set up its own fully-equipped Microbiological Lab to do all testing and quality control in-house.

In addition, it has invested in an in-house Iced Tea and beverage plant which uses cutting edge automated machinery for Iced Tea processing and packaging, maintaining the hygiene quality of RTD bottles to international standards.

The SLIM Brand Excellence awards program is a celebration of brand excellence at a national level and a recognition of the outstanding efforts of top-notch marketers. 

Through this event, SLIM endeavours to not only encourage best practices in branding but also to raise local brands to global standards, to enhance the image of marketing in the country and that of SLIM in the region. 

This event translates as industry recognition of the motivation, dedication, and hard work that great marketers have demonstrated in making brand champions.