Years of stringent quality control and dedication to the founders’ ideal of treating the product quality as an important element in the manufacturing process have paid dividends at Maliban Biscuits, according to officials.
“Our annual sales figure has been growing at the average rate of around 12 % after this award. At present we have a monthly turnover of Rs.220 million. Quality being a total concept to be practiced and not as a thing to be limited to the work place was the motto of Maliban Biscuits’ founder, A G Hinni Appuhamy,” said Maliban Group CEO, D L Weerasuriya at the announcement of winning the ‘National Quality Award 2010’ at a function in Colombo recently.
Initially Maliban Biscuits won this award in 1996. The selection process for the award is handled by the Sri Lanka Standard Institution and involves a set criteria by which all applicants are assessed through six concepts. The concepts include leadership, strategic planning, customer focus, measurement analysis and knowledge management, workforce focus and process management. The company has besides this award, also won the Taiki Akimoto 5S Merit award (from Japan) and the iTQi Super Taste award presented by the International Trade & Quality Institute in Brussels (Belgium).
Mr. Weerasuriya said that the quality maintained by the company has made it possible to penetrate both European and the American markets. He said there is a strong demand for Maliban biscuits in the Middle East and that there is also a large demand for them in the African continent. “However the requirement is for a very low quality product in the African continents, one which we are not willing to produce at any cost,” Mr. Weerasuriya said.
Further he added that there is only one level of quality at Maliban Biscuits no matter what the market is. “There are no compromises on the quality for whatever reason. Whether the biscuits are supplied to the Buckingham Palace or to the poor districts in Africa, the quality will always be the same.” |
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