Uswatte Confectionery Works, Sri Lanka’s oldest confectionery manufacturer, has expanded into the biscuit market with the launch of ‘Uswatte Golden Biscuits’ at a ceremony in Colombo recently.
Realising a longstanding dream of the company’s Founder Chairman the late P.J.C. Perera (Christy) to manufacture and supply premium quality biscuits to the Sri Lankan consumer, the company has now entered the biscuits market under the leadership of present Chairman/Managing Director S. Quintus Perera after years of planning and preparation.
“It was one of my father’s long-standing dreams to launch Uswatte biscuits in Sri Lanka. From the very beginning our priority was to give quality and hygienic products at a reasonable price to the consumer. Today is a very special day for the Uswatte family as we are making his dream come true. The launch of Uswatte Golden Biscuits is just the beginning of a new journey. We intend to introduce novel, exciting products for our consumers to enjoy,” Perera said.
The company aims at becoming the third player in the biscuit market with plans to be the market leader in the near future.
“We have invested Rs. 500 million on the factory and have a workforce of around 500. We also target the export market and already have got inquiries from the Maldives.
“However, it will be difficult to explore the full potential of the export opportunities as the raw material duty component is an issue. We cannot be competitive because of the high cost of production,” he said.
With a profit margin of 7 to 8 percent, our company will have high sales volumes. “As we do not believe in huge profit margins, the company will be able to achieve our sales goals. The company earns Rs 2 billion annual revenue ay present and with the biscuit line expects to double the revenue,” he said.
The Uswatte Golden Biscuits range includes three hard dough biscuits and three soft dough biscuits. The hard dough biscuits are Cream Cracker, Marie and Lemon Puff while the Soft Dough biscuits are Chocolate Cream, Nice and Shorties.
All biscuits are hygienically manufactured to international standards using quality raw materials and flavours produced by the world’s best flavouring companies from countries such as the UK and the Netherlands.
The company has imported the best machinery available for the manufacture of biscuits and utilises local and foreign expertise. All Uswatte Golden Biscuits are made at the company’s state-of-the-art factory in Millaniya.
The 100,000 sq. ft. factory built on a sprawling 15-acre land has ample space to expand operations to meet the demand for the biscuits in the market.