Unilever joins Sathosa in Sri Lanka’s first-ever land sweepstakes

Unilever Sri Lanka, the Lankan presence of the global FMCG giant, has joined forces with the largest State-owned FMCG network in Sri Lanka’s first-ever land sweepstakes, as Sathosa continues to work towards reducing losses, the Trade Ministry said yesterday. 

Under the unique FMCG promotion campaign ‘Idam Nidhaanaya’ (Land Treasure) by Lanka Sathosa and Unilever Sri Lanka, consumers get access to a pioneering sweepstake to win one of three prime land plots developed for them. 

Lanka Sathosa is the largest State-owned FMCG network in the country. The Government plans to expand the 312-strong Sathosa network to 500 outlets by 2016/’17.

Praising both companies for the initiative, Trade and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen said: “It gives me great pleasure to promote FMCG items with a global multinational such as Unilever Sri Lanka. What is more important is that this is the first time-ever that such a different and unusual promotion is taking place in the country. I commend Unilever for choosing Sathosa for this pioneering promotional style in Sri Lanka.”

“I am also pleased to say that Lanka Sathosa has reduced its monthly losses from Rs. 844 million to Rs. 68 million. I am positive that in a few months we shall start reporting profits from the country’s leading State-owned FMCG operator. I am eagerly looking forward to announce the news of Sathosa’s breakeven at this year’s Budget speech. The reason for loss reduction is streamlining operations and network expansion,” he added. 

Lanka Sathosa Chairman Rohantha Athukorala addressing the event said that as a result of the leadership of Minister Bathiudeen, Lanka Sathosa was now emerging as a profit-making FMCG giant from its previous state of a loss-making public entity. “We are Sri Lanka’s FMCG price-setter. We are aiming at increasing our store equity to 4.0 very soon,” he said. 

In December 2015, Lanka Sathosa was ranked second among all retail chain brands in the country at a store equity of 3.4 among the mass market consumers. 

Unilever Sri Lanka has 29 leading brands in respective FMCG categories. Some of the well-known brands in its Lankan portfolio are Signal toothpaste, Lux, Surf Excel, Rexona, Lipton, Knorr, Becel/Flora, Dove and Omo.