PELWATTE DAIRY INDUSTRIES

Pelwatte Dairy Industries believes in supporting and enriching the Sri Lankan dairy landscape, by fulfilling its duty to the nation through the provision of healthy and nutritious products. The brandstrives to guarantee freshness in the products it offers while also aiming to deliver all items from thefarm to retail shelves within a period of 48 hours. Furthermore, the organisation’s operations entailsourcing milk from 18 districts in Sri Lanka with the result of these efforts being that PelwatteDairy Industries is able to empower thousands of smallholder farmers located across the country.

Q: In your view, how does recognition through awards and accolades help garner respect and boost morale in the long run?
A: We consider the recognition our organisation receives each year to be the result of the hard work that team members put in year-round to improve the business.

Every year, we strive to win more accolades – and we do so with our teams’ hard work and dedication, which undoubtedly helps boost their morale and instils a level of respect for the company. We make it a point to send middle management and lower level staff to accept awards on behalf of the business as it is their work that has led to these accolades.

In our opinion, a brand’s image and equity are given more credibility and ratified by the accolades received.

Q: Can corporate reputation give businesses a competitive edge – and if so, how is this achieved?
A: Our deep commitment to the supply chain in relation to smallholder farming communities, and the impact of the brand and products on the livelihoods of low income communities in the 18 districts that we collect milk from, means that customers build a heartfelt relationship with our brand.

When customers purchase one of our products that has been packed with ‘Local Goodness,’ they know its socioeconomic impact. This makes them feel good about themselves. The reputation we have built with our smallholder farmer supply chain gives us this valuable competitive advantage when procuring raw milk.

Farmers working with us know our brand is a reliable and timely paymaster that offers attractive rates throughout the year. Our procurement patterns will not change because of any climatic or pandemic related crises, providing farmers with peace of mind and consistent livelihoods.

Our brand has been named among the cream of the crop so to speak when it comes to the sector. This is mainly due to our significant contribution in terms of rapid annual growth.

Q: Has corporate respect helped the company navigate the pandemic, in your assessment?
A: With the benefit of our competitive advantage, we have been able to operate smoothly and maintain a stable financial position. This has led to banks recognising the company and supporting it with regard to capital expenditure on capacity improvements.

We have managed not only to maintain smooth operations but also make a much needed strategic investment during the pandemic while most industries were heavily cutting back.

The respect we gained with the appropriate financial partners helped us navigate and grow during this period, giving rise to more ambitious hopes for our medium and long-term strategy.

Q: And last but not least, how can corporates earn respect during the COVID-19 crisis?
A: In our case, we have been very agile throughout the pandemic, and able to operate our business and value chains without shutdowns or COVID-19 outbreaks.

We are among the few brands to emerge from the crisis in better shape than when we faced this global catastrophe at the beginning, be it through revenue and profit, or preferred employment and job security.

We’ve gone to extreme lengths with our resilient business model, and close relationships with internal and external stakeholders. We reassured many vendors that purchases and payments will continue through every crisis that our country has endured these past 18 months.

This led to offering assistance to value chain stakeholders to manage their operations smoothly. We have even provided logistics services to suppliers and vendors during the first wave of the pandemic, to transport staff to their premises to commence production and supply us with packing materials.

Pelwatte Dairy Industries says it believes in creating products with consistent quality while tailoring the production process to manufacture the bestproducts available in the market. Through these efforts, the companylooks to deliver dairy products that are free of any adulteration tocompete with imported brands in terms of taste, freshness and quality.

 

 

www.pelwattedairy.com