Maliban wins at GPEA for the second consecutive year

The country’s premier biscuit manufacturer and the leader in taste and quality for over 60 years, Maliban Biscuit Manufactories, has gained global excellence by winning the ‘Best in Class’ award in the large scale manufacturing sector at the Global Performance Excellence Awards (GPEA) 2012 for the second consecutive year.

This internationally acclaimed quality award was presented to the Chairman of Maliban Ratnapala Samaraweera by the Chief Guest Pavithra Wanniarachchi, Minister of Technology and Research and by Dr. Charles A Aubrey, Chairman of the Asia Pacific Quality Organisation at a ceremony held at Hilton Colombo on 14 October 2012.

D.L. Weerasuriya, CEO of Maliban Biscuits delivered the award acceptance speech and emphasised Maliban’s commitment to quality, which was commenced at the time the company was set up by the founder Chairman late A.G. Hinniappuhamy six decades ago.  

He also thanked the local and global community for the confidence they have placed on Maliban during the past six decades by promoting their market share considerably.

“Winning this award for the second consecutive year acknowledges that Maliban Biscuit is recognised for its superior quality standards, not only by the local consumers but also among the international community,” said Warna Fernando, General Manager – Quality Assurance and Research Development of Maliban.

She also went onto say, “At Maliban quality and taste are the two most important factors in production and continued research enables us to produce biscuits according to the changing consumer demand. Internationally, Maliban makes a presence in developed European and US markets, therefore our benchmark is much higher than any of the other local manufacturers and winning an award of this calibre makes it further evident.”

Winning the award proves that a homegrown brand such as Maliban maintains a quality standard that is in par with some of the largest global entities. Industry giants from the Asia Pacific including countries such as Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Singapore participated in the ceremony and were nominated for the awards.

The 18th Asia Pacific Quality Conference of Asia Pacific Quality Organisation (APQO) was held in Colombo from 14 – 17 October 2012. It was the first time that this international event was held in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka Association for Quality, which is affiliated to the Asia Pacific Quality Organisation is a nonprofit organisation that thrives to develop the importance of maintaining quality standards in Sri Lanka, hosted the conference along with the fifth National Convention on Quality.

The five-day conference saw the presence of prominent business leaders, Government officials and a number of renowned names both locally and internationally. Over 150 foreign delegates also participated in this event.

Among keynote speakers were internationally well-known quality gurus namely Dr. Chales Aubrey (USA), Can. Shan Ruprai JM (Australia) and Harnek Singh (Singapore) from various industries around the globe. Ravi Jayawardena, CEO – Sales and Marketing of Maliban was also a part of this prestigious panel, during which he made a presentation on the consumer orientation in relation to maintaining quality.

“The founder Chairman of Maliban believed in the concept ‘quality is religion’ and even after six decades, the company has preserved this notion manifesting that Maliban truly considers quality as the highest priority in everything they do,” concluded Fernando.