Merrill J. Fernando: Founder of Dilmah Tea Passes Away
Source : Qld Sri Lankan Newsletter – Dæhæna – August 2023
Merrill J. Fernando – the founder and former CEO of Sri Lanka’s largest and most global tea brand ‘Dilmah Tea’ – passed away on 20 July.
The iconic businessperson was aged 93 at the time of his demise. Born in 1930 in Negombo, Fernando received his primary education from Maris Stella College and his secondary education from St. Joseph’s College in Colombo.
In 1954, at a time when the island’s tea trade was still under the control of the British, Fernando began working as a tea assistant with Arthur Frederick Jones and his son Dennis Jones at AF Jones & Co.
Fernando was amongst the first group of Ceylonese to be permitted to learn tea tasting. Four years later, Fernando was appointed the company’s Managing Director. However, in 1962, he stepped down from AF Jones & Co. and started Ceylon Tea Services Company.
Later that year, he established Merrill J. Fernando Company and exported bulk tea to Russia, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Libya, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
In 1982, Fernando established Ceylon Tea Services Ltd., which was floated as a public company on the request of the government to support a fledgling Colombo Stock Exchange. Three years later, in 1985, Sri Lanka’s first value added Ceylon tea brand “Dilmah” was launched with Australia-based Mauri Foods. Dilmah Tasting and Packing Factory was awarded ISO 9002 Certification in 1994.
Reaffirming his commitment to the company’s philosophy ‘Business is a Matter of Human Services’, Fernando in 2003 established the MJF Charitable Foundation through which thousands of children, young women and men, impoverished adults, farmers, and war widows received help.
The MJF Charitable Foundation undertook its first major relief effort with the Small Entrepreneur Programme benefiting survivors of the 2004 tsunami disaster. The project has gone on to empower over 2,000 start-up businesses.
Courtesy: https://www.adaderana.lk/
