KOTAHENA – Having made a household name in Sri Lanka as a decicacy and a desert, Motha – the house of confectionaries – is moving ahead to greater things as it completes its golden jubilee in operations.
Julius Motha |
Motha was created nearly a century ago and the present company Motha Confectionary Works (Pvt) Ltd just celebrated its 50th anniversary. Julius Motha, Chairman, Motha Confectionery told Business Times that around 1920s his father, Tiburtius Motha imported and marketed confectioneries and jellies of such fame like ‘Trebor’ from UK in Sri Lanka.
“My father retired in 1950 and my brother and I took over the business and in the 1960s imports were banned and we were almost going go out of business,” he recalled. Then they started manufacturing jellies and toffees locally and with their meticulous planning and dedication not only Motha’s survived but have become the market leaders in most of their products, that were added later on.
The first Motha Jelly to hit the market was Motha Strawberry Jelly which proved to be a instant hit. The Motha duo next added custards and blancmanges and while the existing products reaching great heights in the market, with that encouragement they introduced more products to the market, but there was no turning back.
Motha products now include Quick Set Jelly (Moss Jelly) , Diet Jelly, Faluda Mix, Caramel and Chocolate Puddings, Icing Sugar, Baking Powder, Gelatine, Cornflour, Essences and Colourings.
Business Times visited the Motha Confectionery Complex at Kotahena to ascertain how the whole operation functions and as we walked in we were greeted by the sweet spell of strawberries - a greeting of ‘tempting taste buds’.
At the factory |
Mr Motha explained how the business expanded year after year and how they purchased ‘Athapatu Walawa’ in Kotahena in 1950 where the factory and office is now located on a near acre of prime land. He said that since 25 years Delmege Distributors (Pvt) Ltd have been the distributors of Motha products and Mr Motha complemented them for a great job Delmege is doing. They are also guided by Industrial Technology Institute (ITI). Nihal A.P.Wijeratne, Managing Director/CEO, Motha who happened to be the son of the late Rienzie Wijeratne – the famous journalist and photographer of yester year, said that while they maintain consistent quality standards that won the confidence of their loyal customers, they also base their decisions and appropriate changes with market research.
He said that in one of the research studies they have found just 40% of the population in Sri Lanka use refrigerators and thus they immediately moved into a product ‘Quick Set Jelly’ that gets set under room temperature.
Today the food industry as a whole is at a crossroad with the growing debate over fat and sugar far in excess of what the body requires. The large number of deaths the world over due to diabetes, heart attacks and stroke have been attributed to the excess consumption of fats and sugar among other things.
More and more people are aware that manufactured food contain more fats and sugar and they now gradually tend to move away from those unhealthy foods, forcing manufacturers to recognise this issue and come up with solutions if they are to sell their products.
Responding to these concerns, Mr Motha said that they are well aware of these concerns as they follow the world trends in food manufacture and though it is not mandatory in Sri Lanka in some instances they always follow international standards and utilize the modern food science methods adopted internationally.
“That is how we moved into the international market and 10% of our products are now exported. By and large Jelly contains sugar but going by the current trend we have now introduced to the market a ‘Diet Jelly’ product,” he said. He said that to facilitate the expansion into new products and to cater to the expanding market they are putting up another ultra modern confectionary factory in Bollatha, Ganemulla.
Adrian Fonseka, General Manager, Motha said that they take steps to keep Motha products on ‘top of the mind’ and one step towards that directions is promotion of cake exhibitions and cookery demonstrations. He said that they conduct various workshops on cookery and they are conducted in rural areas too. They also conduct cookery workshops in schools for students and teachers. |
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