Dilmah Tea Leader Celebrates 71 Years of Brewing Cups of Kindness
The unmistakable face of the Sri Lankan family tea company, Dilmah Tea, is Merrill J. Fernando and his typical invitation to customers: “Do try it!”
As one of the first tea growers to offer his teas directly to the world – picked, perfected and packed at source – Fernando’s perfect cup of tea has always been kindness. In fact, the family tea business he formed – surrounding an uncompromising commitment to taste, goodness and ethical purpose – offers a playbook for businesses in a post-pandemic era. It’s that purpose and mission of kindness that characterizes the Ceylon tea maker's story, as he turns 91 and celebrates 71 years in the global tea community.
Tea Industry Milestones Like This Are Important
Milestones chart one's progress, whether noting success or failure. For Fernando, the founder of Dilmah Tea, it’s been success all along the way.
Fernando entered the tea trade in 1950 as one of a batch of five local youths who were trained in the esoteric art of tea tasting, under the preserve of the British. Nevertheless, despite his unshakeable self-belief that has taken him to his present prominence in the industry, even Fernando would not have imagined the varied successes that he would eventually garner.
Dilmah Tea is, undeniably, one of the global leaders of Ceylon tea, and Fernando is the face of the brand. In that role, he’s carried the message of the purity and authenticity of Ceylon tea to more than 100 countries. However, it’s not only in the promotion of the product that Fernando has made his contribution. Over the years, he’s lent his weight to many initiatives that have benefited the industry and Ceylon tea.
For instance, in the early years, Fernando championed several initiatives that created facilitations and remedied inequalities that hampered the local exporter of value-added tea. The tea industry then represented a long value chain, stretching from the local plantation to the retail market overseas, designed for the benefit of the British, allied multinationals and their local associates. He was successful in interposing his authority on this tightly closed system, with a mixture of guile, confrontation and leverage of influence, for the benefit of the local entrepreneur.
The conversion of many traditional orthodox tea factories to the more industrial CTC manufacture, in an uncritical emulation of the Kenyan model, would have become a reality decades ago if not for his reasoned but unrelenting opposition. Had that proposal been implemented, the diversity of Ceylon tea – its uniqueness – would have been obliterated by the depressing sameness of a mass-market product without individuality.
Similarly, the more recent effort to import cheap tea for blending and re-export, the “Tea Hub” concept proposed by exporters – who were prepared to sacrifice the singularity of pure Ceylon tea in favor of short-term profit and denial of long-term damage – would have been launched if not for Fernando's fierce opposition. His was one of the lone voices raised against this scheme which, had it been implemented, would have temporarily enriched a few but impoverished the hundreds of thousands of producers.
Overall, Fernando embodies the philosophy he has always advocated, focusing on the significance that lies beyond success. His desire to share his profits has made an unquantifiable and lasting contribution to his community and beyond. In less-fortunate communities in his own country and overseas, thousands of lives have been touched by the initiatives of the Merrill J. Fernando Charitable Foundation – all funded by the profits of Dilmah Tea. The foundation's guiding principle of empowerment with dignity underlines its founder’s wish to genuinely and positively impact people.
There is also the multitude of biodiversity conservation, restoration, environmental education and research initiatives of Dilmah Conservation, again endowed by Dilmah’s profits from tea.
In the end – as this passionate teaman celebrates his milestone 91st birthday – his commitment to tea and tea-related issues is undimmed, as he focuses on being a force for the common good.
To learn more about Dilmah Tea, visit DilmahTea.com.