Financial Times

MJF, Forbes into spas, holiday bungalows
The MJF group is getting into the health spa business - through a subsidiary - in the big way and plans a total of five spas this year, the biggest being at the now-popular Waters Edge Golf Club.

Malik J Fernando, director Dilmah Tea, said the Waters Edge spa opens on February 15 with state-of-the-art facilities and is the company's flagship spa and the biggest in Colombo.

Other spas are opening at the Mount Lavinia Hotel and other locations while the already existing one at Serendib Hotel, Bentota would be renovated after being affected by the tsunami. The spas are handled by MJF associate, Forbes & Walker Spas.

Asked about changes at the Forbes & Walker group, Fernando said the group would shift from the traditional executive chairman structure to a non-executive chairman's position.

"This is a change from the past. We want to separate the roles - the CEO and chairman. No appointment has yet been made of the new chairman. We are checking out options," he said adding that the Forbes would look at optimizing resources and consolidating as a tea broking business. "We would be looking at ways of adding value while tea, rubber and coconut will form the core business."

Forbes announced last week that Chrisantha Perera, chairman & CEO, would be retiring in June and replaced by Thilan Wijesinghe, the company's Managing Director. Both directors will share executive roles until June. MJF's holiday homes from tea bungalows - a tourism project titled "Tea Trails" - will have its soft launch in April. Five bungalows would be used for this purpose.

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