Asia Siyaka forges ahead as world’s first certified green tea logistics centre

Tuesday, 8 May 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Asia Siyaka, whose 20-year history is founded on a reputation for innovation and dynamism and been instrumental in transforming the country’s 150-year-old tea industry, has etched a few more milestones to place the spotlight on the industry’s green practices and logistics processes.

It becomes the first LEED (Leader of Environmental & Energy Design) certified tea logistics centre in the world, having been conferred a silver certification from the USA Green Building Society for its 250,000 sq. ft. warehousing facility. The state of the art facility now holds the title as the largest tea logistics provider in the country. The investment of close to Rs. 800 million into this facility also makes it the largest investment by a tea broking company in Sri Lanka’s 150-year history of tea.

For one of the founders of Asia Siyaka CEO Anil Cooke and his team, these milestones are revolutionary not just for the company but for the entirety of the industry. “When we first mooted Asia Siyaka, it was not simply to be another tea broker in the country, but to intensify the industry’s stature as a global benchmark for tea. This means not just having the world’s best tea, but also ensuring that the multi-faceted paradigms that come together from leaf to cup is a well-coalesced, seamlessly transitioning value chain. With this benchmark setting facility, we are presenting tea manufacturers and buyers that competitive edge in the value chain, providing real time technology-driven solutions never before seen in the industry.”

Delving into Asia Siyaka’s innovative history, he explains that in the year 2000 the company constructed a 110,000 sq. ft. warehousing facility with 13,000 pallet locations at a cost of Rs. 200 million, which was a trailblazer in its time. “This installation revolutionised the entire landscape of tea logistics given that we were the first to introduce palletised racking, eliminating the conventional manual storage system of stacking 14 packages at a time,” he said. This well affirms the company’s mission of, “Driving the commodity broking business with state of the art practices through continual value addition by setting competitive standards in the industry to satisfy our customers”.

In 2016, Asia Siyaka invested a further Rs. 600 million and added 16,000 pallet locations with a narrow isle facility. Thus, both units together form a 250,000 sq. ft. pioneering facility which today stands as the world’s first green tea logistics centre. With the facility already well-utilised showing an above 90% average occupancy it is pertinent to note that Asia Siyaka Warehousing Ltd., a fully owned subsidiary of Asia Siyaka Commodities PLC is an ISO 22000-certified facility.

The majority stake of Asia Siyaka is owned by Lanka Commodity Brokers which was incorporated in 2003 by a consortium of investors. The young energetic team which continues to trailblaze innovations in the tea broking space is Asia Siyaka’s backbone, making it the market leader in the low country tea segment. The company ranks second among the eight tea brokers in Sri Lanka.