Motha savours taste buds for 50 years

Tuesday, 16 November 2010 23:38 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Sunimalee Dias

Motha, a household favourite in confectionaries, yesterday marked 50 years and unveiled plans of improving the business as it goes forward.

It also marketed some of the interesting and new enhancements to its products in the past years, such as the Motha Diet Jelly and Quick Set Jelly.

In partnership with Delmege Forsyth at the time and today’s Delmege Distributors for a period of 25 years, the brand has excelled in making its mark among Sri Lankans living here and overseas.

In this respect, the organisation markets 10% of its manufactured products to countries like the US, UK, Canada, Italy, Middle East, Australia, India and the Maldives. The remaining 90% is marketed locally.

Motha Confectionary Works Chairman Julius Motha, having taken over from his father, had contributed to the local manufacture of jelly back in 1960 with import restrictions coming in place in the country.

“We have gone a long way,” he said, adding that over the years they added more flavours and were hoping to introduce even more.

In pre-Independence Ceylon, in 1920 it was Tiburtius Motha who began importing confectionaries and jellies from the UK and marketed them to local consumers with great success. The brand’s success was in the flavours and variants made readily available to consumers in Sri Lanka.

Delmege Distributors CEO Dinesh Nalliah addressing the gathering on the occasion observed that Motha today uses non traditional means to engage consumers and is increasingly involved in sponsorship of cake making and icing programmes and workshops.

He also noted the brand was a dominant player in Sri Lanka’s FMCG industry and a market leader in most of the product segments.

Commenting on the north and east, Nalliah explained that while its products were marketed on a relatively ad-hoc basis, “since the end of the war, the demand has improved dramatically and triggered a marked rise in sales”.