LIPTON Teas and Infusions yesterday announced it has agreed terms of a partnership which will result in the transfer of its tea estates in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania to Browns Investments alongside an agreement that all tea sold by Browns worldwide will be grown and harvested to a new set of standards covering quality, social and environmental protections.

This long term partnership will make Browns the world’s leading tea exporter – around 87 million kilograms each year as well as one of the largest suppliers to the world’s largest tea company, LIPTON Teas and Infusions. By working together, the two companies will raise tea quality globally and accelerate the application of responsible farming methods across the industry to drive sustainable growth. Browns will invest in its estates in Kenya and Sri Lanka to meet the new standards by 2025, as well as in the creation of additional skilled employment opportunities in Kenya.

Looking at the thriving and prosperous Gal Oya sugarcane farmer community today, it is hard to believe that they were in despair due to the shutdown of the Hingurana Sugar Factory in 1997, as they depended entirely on the sugar factory for buying their sugarcane harvest. Although the factory had been abandoned for over a decade, the Browns Group evinced an interest in reviving the erstwhile Hingurana Sugar Factory. Now known as Gal Oya Plantations, it was revived 15 years ago in 2007 as a joint venture between the Government and a consortium of private sector investors, comprising Brown and Company PLC and LOLC Holdings PLC in a unique Public-Private Partnership. Apart from the mammoth investment that went into resuscitating the factory, a key challenge for Gal Oya Plantations was to convince local farmers to revert to sugarcane cultivation, not an easy task considering their previous negative experience.

Udupussellawa Plantations PLC and Hapugastenne Plantations PLC, which are operated under Browns Plantations, have appointed four new Non-Executive Directors to its boards effective March 30, 2022; Dr. Pradeep Uluwaduge, Mr Kamantha Amarasekara, Ms Sunjeevani Kotakadeniya and Mr T. Dharmarajah.

Mr Anusha Suhanda Perera, who currently serves on the boards of the aforementioned companies as an Independent Non-Executive Director, has been appointed Executive Director of both plantations. Dr. Pradeep Uluwaduge took over as Chairman of both Udupussellawa Plantations PLC and Hapugastenne Plantations PLC as the successor of Mr Anusha Suhanda Perera. Mr G.D.V. Perera who is a veteran planter and the former Chairman of the Planters’ Association has also joined Browns Plantations as a Senior Consultant effective April 01, 2022.

At a time when enhancing profitability of public enterprises is an urgent need to boost the national economy of Sri Lanka, the revival and turnaround of Gal Oya Plantations (formerly known as Hingurana Sugar factory) by LOLC is an embodiment of how the nation’s assets can be enhanced through professionalism and expertise by the private sector. Underperforming state enterprises are a drain on state coffers as has been seen only once too often. However a profit making state enterprise on the other hand can be a vibrant source of revenue, employment and a critical pillar of food security. Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) of this nature demonstrate how having professionals from the private sector turning state enterprises profitable, can generate valuable income for the government while allowing the government to retain its majority stake. As Sri Lanka’s first PPP initiated to revive non-operational government entities in 2007, the revolution brought about by the Gal Oya plantations today is empowering the local sugarcane farmers and bringing prosperity to their lives and leading to social upliftment, all the while generating massive profits for state coffers.