Cassandra Fernando (Sri Lankan born Australian MP) – speech in the Australian Parliament – covering her school, Holy Family Convent (HFC) Bambalapitiya, and the death of Dilmah tea founder Merrill J Fernando. ...
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 ...
Raising a hearty cuppa to gentle giant behind famed brew-by Yomal Senerath-Yapa Source:Sundaytimes For decades he has not only been the face of Dilmah but the mascot of 100% pure Ceylon tea as well. As Merrill J. Fernando, with his new autobiography, looks back on 93 years of blessed, serendipitous living, it is occasion to raise a hearty cup of Irish Breakfast or Moroccan Mint to the doyen. The practice of having Merrill’s face on the tea packaging of Dilmah was made necessary because of fake products in the market but it also ensured that generations cherished his genial visage across the globe for the personal or ‘family’ touch of his farmer-grown tea. For Merrill, it all began 93 years ago, in 1930, when he was born in the balmy village of Pallansena, Negombo, where he bathed in the Maha Oya and was an altar boy at the church of ...
Raising a hearty cuppa to gentle giant behind famed brew-By Yomal Senerath-Yapa Source:Sundaytimes For decades he has not only been the face of Dilmah but the mascot of 100% pure Ceylon tea as well. As Merrill J. Fernando, with his new autobiography, looks back on 93 years of blessed, serendipitous living, it is occasion to raise a hearty cup of Irish Breakfast or Moroccan Mint to the doyen. The practice of having Merrill’s face on the tea packaging of Dilmah was made necessary because of fake products in the market but it also ensured that generations cherished his genial visage across the globe for the personal or ‘family’ touch of his farmer-grown tea. For Merrill, it all began 93 years ago, in 1930, when he was born in the balmy village of Pallansena, Negombo, where he bathed in the Maha Oya and was an altar boy at the church of ...
Aussie Brewer Joins With Dilmah To Launch Tea-Infused Ale Source:B&T Magazine Two of Australia’s most beloved rituals have been combined in one ground-breaking beer thanks to Port Adelaide’s Pirate Life Brewing and family tea company Dilmah. The Australian-first collaboration has produced Tea and Biccies Brown Ale, combining the deliciousness of fresh beer with the refreshing taste and natural goodness of Sri Lankan black tea. ...
Tea mogul Merrill J. Fernando: ‘I owe everything to Australian consumers’: By Benjamin Law This Sri Lankan businessman, the founder and chairman of Dilmah Tea, counts his blessings every day. Each week, Benjamin Law asks public figures to discuss the subjects we’re told to keep private by getting them to roll a die. The numbers they land on are the topics they’re given. This week he talks to Merrill J. Fernando. After high school, this businessman was one of the first local people in the then British colony of Ceylon to train as a tea-taster in London. At age 58, he launched his own brand of tea, Dilmah, in Australia. He is now 90. Merrill J. Fernando: “We have a family charter which says not a single share in Dilmah tea can be sold outside the family. We have had offers, but our business is not for sale. Never.” SOURCE:SYDNEY MORNING HERLAD ...
The grand old man of tea – Merrill J Fernando With two celebrations falling this month, turning 90 and marking 70 years in the tea trade, ‘Mr. Dilmah’, Merrill J. Fernando talks to Kumudini Hettiarachchi Ninety years old……..while those of his vintage have long left the boardroom, maybe 30 years before, the ‘brand’ of Dilmah Tea who is Merrill J. Fernando is in his office in the Peliyagoda complex before 8.30 in the morning. Source: Sunday Times The new coronavirus which has brought about a strict lockdown and curfew in Colombo has put paid to his daily work schedule. Nonetheless, he is on the job at home, looking closely at a new deal with a well-known company in Australia which usually promotes only its own brand but recently has been in negotiations with Dilmah to take up this brand as well. Conference calls are the order of the day with ...
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