December 2015

52/No.2

Vol.

Inside this issue

– Letter from the Managing Director

– Farewell to Finlays Horticulture

– Ron bids a fond farewell

– News from around the Finlays family

– Ever evolving

– Meeting consumer needs

– Empowering women

– Biogas bounty

– David Dale - A life

– The health & safety journey

– A day in the life

2

December 2015

06

Farewell to Finlays HorticultureThe reason for selling explained

04 Letter from the Managing Director New MD Guy Chambers joins the Group

Contents

22

Extracts & Ingredients NewsTea tasting for beginners

08

Ron bids a fond farewellLooking back on seven happy years at the helm

10 Head Office NewsDavid Johnston and Christiane Kuehne join the main board

14 Tea Estates Kenya News Finlays Charitable Trust help to make a difference

Environmental Impact StatementThis magazine is printed by an ISO14001 printer using vegetable based inks on FSC accredited paper which has been carbon captured through the Woodland Trust scheme which has the following benefits:

0.494 tonne of carbon captured

1521 car miles

12.36m2 of new native

woodland

= or

20

Casa Fuentes NewsAlejo Ramirez celebrates 40 years service

17 Tea Estates Sri Lanka News New green and oolong tea factory opens at Waldemar

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Volume 52/No.2

25

Beverages News New gifting lines from London Tea

32

Meeting consumer needs Exciting times for newly rebranded FEI USA

Finlays Magazine is published half yearly by James Finlay Limited, Swire House, 59 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6AJ.

Production Team: Duncan Gilmour,Ash Kahrl and Michaela Halse.

Email: magazine@finlays.net

www.finlays.net

Printed by 21 Colour www.21colour.co.uk

Designed by Traffic Design Consultants www.traffic-design.co.uk

28

Sri Lanka News Colombo goes Hawaiian

34

Empowering women Helping to ensure opportunities for all

30 Ever evolvingFinlays through the years

36 Biogas bountyBenefits from biogas explained

37 David Dale – A LifeLife and links to James and Kirkman Finlay

38 The health & safety journeyProviding a safe and healthy workplace

40 A day in the lifeFrom London to Misiones in a day!

42 AnnouncementsBirths, marriages and news of former colleagues

Front and back cover images: Finlays tea estates in Kericho, Kenya

4

December 2015

This issue of the Finlays magazine marks the beginning of a new chapter

in our company’s long and diverse history. I am both honoured and excited to share our news in this edition.

Firstly, there have been several changes in the management of our company since the last issue. After seven years at the helm, Ron Mathison has moved on to take up the post of Managing Director of Swire Pacific Offshore in Singapore. I have moved from Hong Kong to Swire House to take over from Ron. I joined John Swire & Sons in 1993 and have worked in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan with Swire Beverages and Damin (a Finlays’ associated company). It is an honour and privilege to take up the post of Managing Director of Finlays and fantastic to have the opportunity to serve the company at this exciting time.

In addition, there have been several other changes to the main board with the retirement of Giles Weaver and Isabella Wemyss as non-executive directors after 19 and 13 years respectively. Our heartfelt thanks go to them both for their many years of service to the company. In their place, we welcome two new members to the board: Christiane Kuehne and David Johnston. Christiane was most recently the Head of the Food Strategic Business unit of Nestlé and a member of the board of L’Oreal. David Johnston was previously Vice President of Innovation and Design at Firmenich, one of the leading global flavour and fragrance companies. We welcome them both to the Board and look forward to their valuable contribution.

Secondly, there have been three major changes to the structure of Finlays. In August, the company increased its investment in Damin from 20% to 40%. At the same time, we have seconded Chief Financial Officer Patrick Lee from the Swire Group and Christian Johansen (previously MD of Finlays Colombo) has replaced me as Chief Operating Officer. This is a sizeable investment and deepens our strategic partnership with Damin, the world’s largest tea extracts producer.

Letter from the Managing DirectorGuy Chambers joins as the Group’s Managing Director and introduces the start of a new chapter in the Finlays story.

Guy Chambers

GROUP

It is an honour and privilege to take up the post of Managing Director of Finlays and fantastic to have the opportunity to serve the company at this exciting time.”

Guy ChambersManaging Director

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Volume 52/No.2

In late November, we completed the sale of Finlays Horticulture to a US investment firm, Sun European Partners. Details of the transaction appear in pages 6 and 7. However, we retain our flower farm business in Kericho, Finlay Flowers, which will continue to supply exclusively to our former distribution businesses in the UK and Germany. Martin Hudson has left the main board of Finlays and remains the CEO of Finlays Horticulture, which will soon be renamed.

The decision to sell Finlays Horticulture was not taken lightly and was made for strategic reasons. Finlays has a unique and integrated global footprint in the beverage industry. We own and operate tea estates, extraction facilities for tea, coffee and plant extracts, packing facilities and R&D labs across four continents. After a detailed review, it was felt that it was increasingly important for us to focus on beverages as our core business area, rather than trying to succeed globally at both beverages and horticulture.

Also in November, shareholders of Finlays Colombo approved a resolution to de-list the company from the Colombo Stock Exchange. New regulations require that all companies listed on the main board have a minimum of 20% of their shares in free float. As the company’s shareholding in Finlays Colombo stood at roughly 97%, rather than sell down to meet the requirement, the decision was taken to delist and buy back minority shareholders. This returns Finlays Colombo to being a wholly-owned subsidiary similar to its status before it was listed in 1992. The delisting is pending final approval of the Stock Exchange.

As a side note, I believe that it would be a mistake to view the sale of Horticulture and the de-listing of Finlays Colombo as a return to the Finlays of the past. Our company has changed in many ways, including new acquisitions (such as Autocrat and Casa Fuentes), new investments

(in Damin) and the rapid growth of the Finlays

Extracts & Ingredients business. It will continue to evolve as we pursue the exciting opportunities presented in beverage

markets around the world, underpinned by our unique

position in tea. These changes are clearly steps forward to a new chapter, rather than steps backwards.

Finally, regular readers will notice changes to the design of this magazine and the Finlays logo. This is the first issue of the newly designed layout which has been refreshed to reflect a more contemporary feel, whilst at the same time preserving many of the traditional aspects of previous editions. In addition, we have taken the opportunity to make a small change to the company’s logo, by adding ‘Since 1750’ as a tag-line beneath “Finlays”.

These changes are small but important. Finlays is a unique company with a valuable history. Few companies operating today have the history or diversity of Finlays. Yet, what is even more important is that we are not stuck in the past. We are proud of our history, but are equally keen to reinvigorate how we operate so that we can remain in a leadership position. Many challenges remain, but we are passionate to create a new chapter in our history. We look forward to sharing news of our progress with you in this and future issues.

Investment in Damin increased

from 20% – 40%

Top:

Tea being nurtured in

our Kenyan nursery.

Finlays has a unique and integrated global footprint in the beverage industry.”

Bottom:

Finlays Sri Lanka

tea estates.

6

December 2015

As mentioned in my introductory letter, Finlays sold its Horticulture Division

to Sun European Partners in late November.

Finlays Horticulture (previously known as Flamingo Holdings) was acquired in 2007. Regular readers may recall that the 2007 editions of the Finlays Magazine reported that the acquisition was a major landmark for the Group. Indeed, group revenue doubled and our presence in Kenya and the UK increased significantly.

So why sell?

It would be fair to say that Finlays Horticulture has a strong customer base, an experienced management team and is performing well. So the decision to sell the business was not taken lightly. However, this was a strategic decision. Finlays now has a unique and integrated global footprint in the beverage industry. We own and operate tea estates, extraction facilities for tea, coffee and plant extracts, packing facilities and R&D labs across four continents. We feel that it is increasingly important to focus on beverages as our core business, rather than trying to succeed globally at both beverages and horticulture as part of one company.

Finlays bids farewell to Finlays HorticultureGuy Chambers, Group Managing Director provides some background to the decision to sell the Group’s Horticulture Division and wishes the business well under its new owners.

We feel that it is increasingly important to focus on beverages as our core business, rather than trying to succeed globally at both beverages and horticulture as part of one company.”

FLOWERS

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Volume 52/No.2

We took the decision to retain our flower farms in Kericho (Tarakwet and Chemirei) and Londiani (Lemotit). This is for the simple reason that these farms are co-located and closely integrated with our tea estates in Kericho. It made sense to keep them together and there is no plan to sell these businesses. Finlay Flowers will continue to supply exclusively to Omniflora and Finlay Flowers UK which will be renamed after the sale is completed.

The transaction included the sale of Finlay Flowers UK, Finlays Fresh Produce UK, Finlays Horticulture Kenya, Finlays Horticulture Tanzania, Omniflora, Finlay Flowers BV, FV SeleQt, Dudutech and Finlays Horticulture South Africa. The Horticulture Division’s management team continues to lead the business and every effort has been made to ensure a smooth transition.

Our shareholders have always been very supportive of our horticulture businesses and we have continued to invest in growth. We are confident that we have found the right buyer in Sun who will take this business forward with the focus it deserves. Many strong friendships have been made over the years and I am sure that these will remain in the years to come. We wish Martin and the entire Finlays Horticulture team the very best of luck under new ownership.

So where does this leave Finlays today?

In the past few years, Finlays has being changing quite rapidly. Since 2012, Finlays has built a 40% equity stake in Damin, the largest manufacturer of natural tea extracts in the world and the leading player in providing natural ingredients to the food and beverage industry in China. In 2014 Finlays acquired Autocrat, a leader in coffee extracts in the United States. In the same year, Finlays also acquired Casa Fuentes, the largest tea estate company in Argentina.

Broadly speaking, Finlays now consists of two groups of businesses. Predominantly, we are a multi-national, multi-sector provider of tea, coffee and botanical ingredients, finished products and services to brand owners. The geographic scope of this business covers the UK and Europe, the Americas as well as Asia, driven by our major investment in China (Damin). In addition, we own and operate a small collection of local entrepreneurial businesses in different locations (Finlays Colombo, Finlay Flowers in Kericho and Finlays Pakistan).

As far as I understand, today’s Finlays is probably as ‘streamlined’ as it has been for very many years. The emphasis is clearly on us as a management team to bring the moving parts of our beverage businesses together to create a winning proposition for current and future customers. This will be a huge challenge. But having met all the members of our senior management in each business over the last three months, I am confident that we have a fantastic team to seize this opportunity. I look forward to sharing our progress in future editions of this magazine.

Broadly speaking, Finlays now consists of two groups of businesses.”

8

December 2015

After seven very happy years I left Finlays in September to take up a new assignment as

Managing Director of Swire Pacific Offshore in Singapore. Having spent much of that time complaining about oil prices being too high and trying to reduce our reliance on ‘big bad’ oil, I am now going to be doing my best to talk oil prices up and persuade everyone that a healthy oil and gas industry is a good thing!

It is always hard to say goodbye when you change jobs but somehow this time it was even harder than usual. There is something very special about Finlays that commands incredible staff commitment and loyalty – that sense of belonging to a very special company. Perhaps it is the heritage of a company that dates back to 1750. That is not to say that there is no need for change. Companies are living organisms that constantly need to adapt to keep pace with the changing world in which we live. Finlays is no exception and there has been a great deal of change over the last seven years as we sought to modernise Finlays and bring in stronger governance and controls whilst at the same time digesting the various acquisitions made during this period.

Part of that reenergising must come from introducing fresh blood from outside the company to bring in new ideas, new skills and new ways of doing things. We have beefed up our tea science skills, brought in more manufacturing and engineering expertise; we have introduced more financial management skills as well as sales and marketing skills, procurement, risk management, project management and quality management skills.

I don’t know what it is about Finlays but we always seem to have more than our fair share of crises. In the last seven years these have included the collapse of the financial markets, the unpronounceable Icelandic volcano, apocalyptic hail storms and droughts in Kenya, floods and then a collapse in tea and rubber prices. Perhaps it is the inherently risky nature of our businesses but there never seems to be a dull moment. I can safely say that running Finlays is as good a test of character as you will find but the remarkable thing is just how resilient the Group is when faced with a whole host of adversities. For me the essence of Finlays’ longevity is our commitment to sustainability: that means taking good care of our people, the environment and the communities that support us.

Ron bids a fond farewellRon Mathison, who recently left Finlays to take up a new posting with Swire in Singapore, reflects on his time as the Group’s Managing Director.

GROUP

There is something very special about Finlays that commands incredible staff commitment and loyalty – that sense of belonging to a very special company.”

Ron Mathison

9

Volume 52/No.2

One of the best things about running Finlays is the range and diversity of the different businesses in the group. I never imagined how complex the tea and horticulture industries were and I found it absolutely fascinating. I was always so impressed by the knowledge and passion of our people throughout the organisation; it is literally palpable and incredibly infectious. I always looked forward to visiting the various businesses and seeing what was actually happening on the ground. I will particularly miss my trips to the tea plantations and flower farms. I will never forget the first time I went to Kericho and the excitement of coming in by air, passing over the beautiful south west Mau forest and seeing the rolling green carpet of tea opening up into the distance as we made that banking turn into the final approach. I would get that same frisson of excitement every time I flew there and I would then pinch myself and think how lucky I was to be part of something so special.

My friends were all so envious when I told them about my travels and life on the farms; about the leopard and cobra we found sleeping in one of our greenhouses, the warthogs stealing our baby corn and the baboons raiding our canteen in Naivasha, the elephants in the forest at Chepkembe; life in Finlays is so much more colourful and fulfilling than working in the City.

I am particularly proud of the Group’s commitment to sustainability: the diversification into rubber on our tea estates in Sri Lanka which has changed the climate and improved soil health; the biodiversity studies in Kericho and the discovery of bongo in the forest; the social impacts on the community of our welfare and outgrower models; the work we have done on renewable energy such as solar, biogas and

gasification; the ropeway in Kericho, plastic fence posts

made from waste plastic for fencing the forest; vermicompost, the use of bio rationals in Dudutech, our wetlands, the

beehives, papyrus regeneration, and of course

our famous flower donkey carts. People are always blown away by what we do and by the impact we have on so many livelihoods in developing countries like Kenya and Sri Lanka. I found all this incredibly meaningful and rewarding.

I have really enjoyed my travels and meeting with staff, customers and suppliers in so many different parts of the world. I will miss having the customary Asado barbecue washed down by copious amounts of red wine with our charming Argentinian colleagues up in Misiones, fishing on the dam at Kericho, sundowners on the farm in Naivasha, walking after work

in the Mau forest, playing snooker in Hapugastenne bungalow, games of drunken ping pong with Mr Jiang, the good humoured banter at the Chai Cup and softball in Battersea Park, our christmas quiz and, of course, golf at the historic Hill Club up in Nuwara Eliya.

I will miss my tea and coffee tasting sessions, learning how to slurp with the best. They say it takes seven years to become a tea taster and I can believe that – it has taken me seven years just to learn how to slurp without choking and spluttering all over the place! But most of all I will miss the many friends I have made right across the Group.

Changing the group managing director is also part of the company’s renewal cycle and I know that Guy will bring lots of new ideas and new skills. For my part, although I am very sorry to be leaving Finlays I am also excited about the opportunity to live in a new country and learn about a completely different business. I will always look back on my time with Finlays with many fond memories and I wish you all the very best for the future.

My friends were all so

envious about my travels

At a farewell reception in London, Ron was

presented with a silver tea caddy and a rare

book illustrating antique oriental carpets,

one of his many passions.

The rolling green carpet of tea at our

Kericho tea estates.

10

December 2015

Head Office News

Christiane Kuehne

Tea has been Christiane’s

lifelong companion As long as she can remember there has never been a morning without tea. Depending on the

locations it ranged from a superb cup to just a warm one but it was always tea !

Born an expatriate child in Paris and raised for her formative years in Brazil, Christiane hled a “modern” nomad life into adult life, taking her to Hong Kong and China in the late 80s, and later to Vietnam and then to Switzerland, her home country. In a global corporate role in charge of Savory Food, she travelled all over the world with frequent trips to Africa, the US and Asia.

Christiane has had a long career with Nestlé which encompassed a variety of sales, operational and strategic roles in very different environments. Most rewarding has been the nurturing of young talent and driving the strategic shift of Nestlé into nutrition and health. As a board member of L’Oreal for the past four years, she discovered the beauty sector, a truly different but fascinating world.

Having lived for many years in different emerging countries, Christiane and her husband are convinced that the education of children is pivotal for the future of any developing country. As a result they have set up the Wetter Foundation which builds schools in remote areas in Indochina.

When a child, David developed

a passion for innovation and much to the annoyance of his parents, was continually dismantling any

household mechanical instrument to find out how it worked… and needless to say was then unable to put it back together.

Testament to his entrepreneurial and innovative spirit, David has recently started his own company which is involved in taste modification (reducing sugar, salt or fat in food and bridging the “taste gap” to help ensure consumer preference). The “start-up” is funded by US based Natural Advantage LLC a leader in the area of natural flavour ingredients. David has also started another innovation company, based on a partnership with a leading supplier of encapsulated flavour systems.

Prior to going solo, David worked for the world’s largest privately held flavour company, Firmenich SA for 12 years latterly as a member of the executive team leading global innovation for their flavour division.

In the past David worked for the Swiss Government and a research institute in the UK.

He is also a Non Executive Director of Treatt Plc, a leading UK based provider of natural flavour ingredients and solutions.

David is married to Helene, has two children and is an avid sports enthusiast who also likes to travel to some of the world’s most inhospitable places.

David J Johnston PhD

Over the past few months there have been a number of changes to the composition of the board of James Finlay Limited.

Giles Weaver and Isabella Wemyss retired as non-executive directors

in July 2015. Giles had been a director since 1996 during which time he was a member of the Group Audit Committee and Chairman of The Finlays Pension Fund. Isabella joined the Board in 2002 since when her knowledge of tea and Kenya has been invaluable to Finlays. The board expressed its gratitude for the contribution of both during a period of considerable change for the Group.

David Johnston and Christiane Kuehne were appointed non- executive directors on 9 July and 17 December respectively. Both bring extensive and relevant experience to their new roles as outlined in the profiles elsewhere on this page.

As reported elsewhere Martin Hudson resigned as an executive director on 23 November 2015 following the sale of the Horticulture Division to Sun European Partners.

Board changes

11

Volume 52/No.2

This takes many forms,of which perhaps the most important

is education. This is provided by community schools on Finlays’ estates in Kericho but also through financial support by Swire which pays for two members of the Kericho community to attend a UK university. Where possible, the hope is that following graduation, scholars return to take up employment within Finlays, reinvesting their knowledge and further building their skills in the practical environment of the workplace.

Current scholars Vicky Chepkorir and Gilbert Bett visited Swire House in September where they had lunch with Robert Cutler, General Manager, Personnel for Swire, and Anthony Perkins, Group HR Director for Finlays followed by a look around head office and a visit to the Finlay Extracts and Ingredients technical lab.

The investment in university education in Kericho goes back some years and is part of Finlays’ broader investment in our communities.

Since his appointment as Managing Director, Guy Chambers has

initiated a monthly “tea time with Guy” session. Everyone gathers together late in the afternoon in the tea tasting area on the first floor in Swire House, to drink tea, eat cake and chat about topical issues.

Guy explained the idea behind the tea time saying, “we all enjoy taking a break and having a cup of tea so I thought why not do this together once a month? I use the opportunity to give the team a quick update on what’s happening around the Group. It’s also a chance for anyone in the team to ask questions. I always promise not to talk for too long because otherwise I won’t have a chance to grab some cake before it all disappears!

Our resident tea experts, Ottilie Cunningham, Mark Peters and Huafu Wang have treated us to some wonderful and various infusions grown from our own leaf on our estates in Kenya and Sri Lanka. It’s good to be able to have the opportunity to try teas which we may not otherwise get a chance to taste.

Guy has covered several interesting topics so far including the history of Finlays, the origins of the words “chai” and “tea” and his thinking behind the development of the updated logo which Ash Kahrl speaks about on pages 30 and 31.

Tea time with GuySwire scholars

Finlays have always been keen to invest in the communities in which it operates.

Enjoying a cup of tea at the recent

tea time session

Gilbert Bett, Scholar (l); Anthony Perkins,

Group HR Director for Finlays (c), Vicky Chepkorir, Scholar (r).

35th pensioners’ reunion

This year’s Pensioners’ reunion broke with past tradition being a much more informal affair held in the roof top restaurant of Glasgow’s Carlton George Hotel on 18 June. The absence of goody bags didn’t seem to be too much of a concern for the 35 or so pensioners who spent an enjoyable few hours reminiscing about old times. The event was hosted by Duncan Gilmour, now himself technically a pensioner, and Bob Gray, both of whom gave brief presentations on what was happening in today’s Finlays.

The new venue and less formal atmosphere were generally thought to have been a success. As yet we have still to agree final details for next year’s London reunion but the date has been fixed for Thursday 2 June. Invitations will be issued in April next year but if you know that you are not on our mailing list for this event and would like to attend please contact Michaela Halse whose details are shown on page 3.

12

December 2015

Group News

Road safety week

The main focus was of the initiative to promote safer roads

for all users by encouraging people to “drive less, live more”.

Head Office and FEI in Swire House showed a series of road safety videos to raise the awareness of safe cycling and driving, as well as being prepared for winter weather and reduced visibility in dark mornings and evenings.

Finlay Beverages showed a presentation on a loop every hour on their canteen televisions focusing on drink driving, using mobile phones whilst driving and vehicle safety on site. Staff also had the opportunity to enter a wordsearch competition to win £25 of Tesco vouchers.

JFK put together a road show on 24 November led by Reuben Langat of the H&S Committee. The Kenya police were invited to participate and led a procession of vehicles which started

from the Kapsongoi barrier at the main entrance to Finlays all the way to the Kymulot stage. High vis jackets were given out to motorbike riders and signs were posted at strategic locations with anti drink-driving, anti speeding and anti overloading road safety messages for road users.

Sri Lanka Tea Estates at Ingiriya held several awareness sessions to celebrate Road Safety Week. The traffic divisions of the various regional police stations were also drafted in to help get the message over about traffic regulations and the responsibility of all road users to comply.

In Colombo, education sessions were held promoting the “drive less, live more” message encouraging people to reduce vehicle use by walking, cycling or using public transport.

All businesses throughout the Group took part in Road Safety Week from 23 to 29 November. This is an initiative which is run annually by a charity called Brake and was observed by thousands of schools and workplaces throughout the UK. Julian Davies, Director Compliance & Risk, challenged businesses across the Group to take part.

Brakethe road safety charity

Kindly sponsored by

sober

silent

slow secure

Pledge atbrake.org.uk/pledge

Pledge tosave lives

sharp sustainable

JFK road safety week

activity team

13

Volume 52/No.2

Road safety week

James Finlay Kenya

Colombo

Beverages

Head Office

Tea Estates Sri Lanka

A selection of the activities that took place across the Group during road safety week.

We share photos here from across the Group.

14

December 2015

Tea Estates Kenya News

At the time of writing the intense rains that were predicted to start falling in

early October have yet to materialise.

The low production levels caused by the drought in the first quarter resulted in our cost of production being higher than budgeted. This, despite improved prices on the Mombasa tea auction, has resulted in our financial performance remaining behind budget, with little chance of full recovery by the end of the year. The recent depreciation of the shilling against the US dollar will provide some benefit in the long term, but in the meantime has simply led to an increase in the cost of imported goods. Chomogonday are to be commended for attaining second prize in the Commercial PD (Pekoe Dust) category at the annual, trade show in Nairobi. Under the speciality tea category we took top place in the Orthodox, White tea and Purple tea classes.

The Central Services division has also experienced a torrid year, with hydro, logging and sawmill all performing below budget. As a result, with a view of reducing cost and increasing efficiency, we have carried out detailed reviews of each of these service providers.

At the end of June, 14 colleagues from around the globe converged in Kericho to attend the biennial inter country plantation meeting.

Stephen Mosongo retired at the end of May after 32 years of dedicated service. We wish Stephen and his family well in their new endeavours. David Kirui, formerly factory manager, Changana, was appointed as group manager to succeed Stephen. Caroline Lloyd, who was instrumental in strengthening the Maintaining Ethical Business (MEB) programme, has relocated to France with her husband Matt. We are very grateful for the significant progress made by Caroline in the short time that she was with us and welcome Dorothy Booker to take forward this most important programme as the new Kericho Welfare Manager.

Simeon HutchinsonManaging Director

The weather, on which so much of the success of our business depends, has been fairly erratic throughout 2015, and by mid-year there was an increasing amount of coverage in the media about the potential development of an El Nino and the predictions that it was likely to be stronger than the 1997/98 event

On 9 September the senior management team together with their spouses met at Mara Mara Club, to say farewell to Ron Mathison ahead of his move to Singapore, and to welcome Guy Chambers as the new Group Managing Director.

The Tea Futures 2030 Initiative for Sustainable Landscapes (ISLA) South West Mau project was launched at the end of June in a function attended by the Governors of both Kericho and Bomet counties. A number of ‘kick start’ projects have commenced, including the rehabilitation of various degraded areas within the forest. Finlays are leading the rehabilitation of an area adjacent to the Mara Mara forest station, using trees purchased from community tree nurseries that had been established under the Bongo Surveillance Project – such involvement of the forest adjacent communities will be key to the long term prosperity of the forest.

Business update

15

Volume 52/No.2

Appointment ofDorothy Booker

Ball games/Tea directoratemarathon

On 15 November Finlays Kericho personnel congregated at

Kaproret stadium for the finals of various sporting competitons. This years’ winners, who all retained trophies won last year, were football – Central Zone, volleyball – Northern Zone and netball – Kitumbe Zone.

In May a group of 30 employees participated in the Kericho Tea Directorate of Kenya International Marathon. In addition a further four participated in the national championships held in Nairobi.

Since its inception in 2010, the Finlays Charitable Trust (FCT) has

completed 30 projects, 20 of which have now been commissioned. There are 32 ongoing projects, all worth over Ksh. 75M. From the dry Cherara secondary school in Chilchila ward to the green Kaptebeswet secondary school the story has been the same; great appreciation from the community for Finlays contribution towards education in the two counties of Bomet and Kericho. From the loamy Solyot secondary school in Bomet County to the breezy Saramek secondary school in Kericho county, reaction from the students has been amazing. Academic performance has risen as have the number of students enrolled.

The Swire Educational Trust (SET) has made a big impact by sponsoring 14 more university students doubling the number to 28 who benefit from annual scholarships to local universities. It also sponsors two students who are selected annually for Masters degree programmes in the UK. Three students have graduated with two now employed by Finlays.

The farmers, supported by Finlays, have now seen the fruits of their own efforts. Each cooperative is stable and progressing well despite a few challenges. All but one now owns brand new offices.

The earnings of farmers, who produce Masingi and Bondet Marks, have been reasonable despite a difficult year when both prices and volumes were very low.

Fintea, the umbrella Union has managed to co-ordinate all the activities of it’s cooperatives despite the loss of its pioneer chairman who passed away last year. The Fintea Sacco (credit union), currently in its infancy, is taking shape. It intends to advance low interest loans to farmers and is working with other institutions which aim to improve the well-being of farmers.

A crop diversification project has had challenges but great lessons have been learnt. There are now 133 farmers compared to the original 249 while the crop yield have exceeded 111 tons and income to farmers was Ksh. 3.8m. More effective strategies are now being put in place to increase total production and yield per hectare. A few farmers are exploring ways of irrigating their farms during the dry season. This will enable them to benefit from higher prices when demand is stronger. Fairtrade sales have seen the farmers receive premiums amounting to over Ksh.39M, 87% of which has gone into community development projects through the five primary cooperatives.Watch this space for more information on how we tackle our corporate social responsibility!

Finlays Charitable Trust

On 18 May, Dorothy Booker was appointed as Welfare Manager.

Reporting to the Human Resource Director, Dorothy provides leadership and support in the development and implementation of staff, family welfare and child protection policies and procedures. Dorothy has over nine years’ experience in welfare and related work gained from various organisations which include ’ Living with Hope Centre, Mercy Orphans Support Project, Omega Foundation and Life Ministry.

University scholarship (local)

beneficiaries for 2015 with Managing

Director, FCT trustees and Kericho

government officials

16

December 2015

Tea Estates Kenya News

Fairtrade Africa Expo - 2015

On 24 September JFK celebrated Fairtrade Africa’s 10th

anniversary. Over 200 producers and traders attended the event, including workers from fairtrade flower, tea, and coffee farms.

Fifteen years ago there were just 10 fairtrade producer organisations in Africa and there were no opportunities for them to connect or collaborate. That began to change with an initiative by pioneer fairtrade coffee cooperatives in East Africa to form a regional network to exchange information . The idea caught on, more regional networks followed, culminating in the opening of the first Fairtrade Africa office in Moshi, Tanzania in 2005.

The expo comprised three parts, a conference, an exhibition and business to business focus group sessions.

The conference focused on the outlook for sustainable agriculture and development in East Africa over the next 10 years. Presentations covered challenges to ethical trade & sustainability, sustainable consumption in Africa and included case studies on the impact of fairtrade.

The exhibition showcased fairtrade certified products and services including live presentations, value added products, resource materials and other relevant merchandise. Finlays had the opportunity to showcase some of the top tea grades from Chomogonday, Kymulot and Kitumbe factories in two categories of “conventional” and “specialty” teas in the primary grades of BP1, PF1, PD, orthodox and purple. The stand stood out from the rest and was visited by among others, the British High Commissioner to Kenya, Dr Chris Turner

The focus group sessions provided an opportunity for producers, traders, service providers and players in the fairtrade value chains to discuss emerging issues including workers’ rights & living wage, gender & leadership, compliance, innovative finance mechanisms, and policy & advocacy.

Dr Chris Turner gave a keynote address on building a sustainable future for agriculture.

Show Tea awards 2015

Hosted by the Agriculture Fisheries and Food Authority, the chief

guest was Mr Adan Mohamed, Acting Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Livestock.

As part of the Nairobi International Trade Fair, the Tea Directorate held a competition to determine the best teas across a range of categories including both commercial and specialty.

In the commercial category, Chomogonday Factory were the second highest valued PD in a class of 76. The tea was valued at $4.04.

In the specialty category Finlays was also successful in the following classes;

– Highest priced orthodox tea valued at $4.44

– Highest priced purple tea valued at $18.00.

– Highest priced white tea (Silver Tips) valued at $185.00

In addition, Finlays was awarded the first prize for the most innovative factory project in the ‘Best Practices in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Competition – 2015’ This was in recognition for the installation of solar wall panels to harness green energy for use in its continuous withering facilities at Chomogonday factory. The company also came second in the Estates, Factories and Farms category of the same competition in recognition for its implementation of various sustainability initiatives including harnessing of green energy through solar and biogas projects, waste management, installation of energy saving stoves in villages and environmental conservation.

The 10th National Tea Drinking Day was marked this year during the Sun Downer Industry Awards Gala Dinner held on 9 October at the Hilton Hotel in Nairobi.

Competition winners with their trophies

17

Volume 52/No.2

Tea Estates Sri Lanka News

The north east monsoon which should be falling in the Eastern sector has instead affected

Colombo and the southern parts of the island which have seen unprecedented rainfall. That said, tea volumes are in line with the corresponding period last year whilst the rubber crop has exceeded that of the previous year.

We have cut back on purchases of outgrower leaf due to weakening auctions prices and the large volumes of withdrawals due to lack of demand as not to do so would have resulted in a heavy strain on our working capital.

Despite a global shortfall of tea, Colombo auction prices have continued to fall from a high of Rs 510 per kg in January this year to Rs 368 in September, a drop of 28% or the equivalent of USD1. This is said to be due to the unrest in the Middle East, the sanctions imposed on Iran and Russia and the crash of the Russian rouble. As a result we think it prudent for Sri Lankan exporters to look to some of the new attractive markets which are opening up across the world.

The current problems are beyond the control of the growers, but unfortunately it is the plantation companies which are coming under the most pressure to tighten their belts in order to sustain the industry during these challenging times. Our managers have responded well, with the unit cost of tea and rubber lower than both the previous year and budget, despite the reduction in purchases of out grower leaf referred to above.

Revenues from ancillary crops, hydro and timber have contributed in excess of Rs 200 million to the end September, with expectations of more to come in the final quarter. The Newburgh green tea project continues to progress well, with margins exceeding that of the previous year and budget. Our partners remain supportive notwithstanding the difficulties currently being experienced.

The estates we reclaimed in 2014 are progressing well although there is still more to be done but I am confident that our team will tackle outstanding issues in the New Year. Although the cost per unit of tea has reduced by a third (still comparatively high) across all the re-claimed estates, the drop in the tea price unfortunately has meant that these improvements have not been reflected in the bottom line as we had envisaged.

Naresh RatwatteChairman & MD

In keeping with the festive season, I wish I had some better news to report but unfortunately the converse is the case. The crash in both tea and rubber prices coupled with erratic weather which seems set to continue for the rest of the year has meant that the business continues to struggle.

Finally, some good news! In September we opened our new show piece green and oolong tea factory at Waldemar so look out for Waldemar oolong and green teas from Sri Lanka in the New Year.

In summary, with our recent investment in two CTC factories we have doubled our capacity for CTC production and with Waldemar coming into production we have also increased our green tea production capacity by 100% whilst being able to produce oolong tea using the latest state of the art equipment.

Business update

18

December 2015

Tea Estates Sri Lanka News

‘Promoting Sustainable Biomass Energy Production & Modern Bio-Energy Technologies in Sri Lanka’ is a national project funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Renewable Energy (MOERE).

Priya Gunewardene, Head of Forestry and Ancillary Crops, represents the Ceylon Planters’ Association (CPA) on the project. The plantation sector as represented by the CPA has been identified as a major biomass energy user in Sri Lanka and Priya is actively involved in component II of the

Murali Harmony Cup 2015

Visit of Christiane Kuehne

Ahead of her appointment as a non-executive director of James

Finlay, Christiane Kuehne visited Sri Lanka Tea Estates in September. During her stay, she was shown Delmar and Concordia estates as well as the Courtlodge tea factory and the Passara group of estates, where she was able to see crop diversity initiatives involving the use of previously uneconomical tea land to grow rubber, forestry, cinnamon and pepper.

Christiane also visited Newburgh green tea factory and observed the dual CTC & orthodox tea manufacturing facilities at Hapugastenne Tea Estate.

GEF/ UNDP/ FAO bio energy project consultants visit Tea Estates Sri Lanka

project which is the removal of barriers for sustainable fuel wood production in Sri Lanka. Priya is also a member of the technical advisory committee developing standard specifications for sustainably produced fuel wood.

On 29 September, a team of consultants and FAO project officials visited fuelwood plantations at Galbode and Alupola estates to study best practices and species selection.

The project will work closely with Tea Estates Sri Lanka to introduce wood chips as firewood for tea drying instead of eucalyptus logs.

Central Office annual excursion

The company’s staff welfare society organised this year’s

annual excursion to Centara Ceysands Resort & Spa at Bentota Peninsula. Situated between the Bentota river and the Indian Ocean on Sri Lanka’s south-western coast, the event ran over two days in September and was well attended by directors, senior managers and the staff of central office.

Access to the peninsula was on a boat crossing the Bentota river. Jet ski, banana boat rides and kayaks

were among the popular water sports available. There was also a family get-together in the evening allowing everyone to socialise and strengthen working relationships. Boat rides through mangrove swamps afforded views of birds and crocodiles resting on the river banks and were unforgettable experiences for everyone.

The Kosgoda turtle hatchery managed by turtle conservationists, and the Aluthgama ‘Kande Vihara’ Temple was aslo visited.

Finlays co-sponsored the 2015 Murali Harmony Cup, an annual

cricket tournament which was initiated by one of Sri Lanka’s greatest cricketers, Muttiah Muralitharan, and the Foundation of Goodness in 2011. The project was launched with the aim of supporting the reconciliation effort in post war Sri Lanka, whilst at the same time helping underprivileged children, mainly in the north and east, of the country through cricket.

Teams for the tournament which are chosen from across the country are primarily invited on a school basis but in certain regions school children combine to form a joint team to allow for maximum representation from across the island.

Outstanding players are identified by a team of experts during the tournament and are provided with opportunities to develop their skills under leading Sri Lankan coaches. It is hoped that this will in turn lead to them playing for leading cricket clubs in the country.

Finlays entered a combined team from schools within the regions where the Group’s tea estates are located.

19

Volume 52/No.2

The Bibile estate, located on the south east slopes of the central

hills only receives enough rains only during the north east monsoon which usually arrives in September and lasts through until January. This means that storage and flow regulation is essential for successful crop production.

During the dry spell, especially in July and August, the estate faces severe difficulties in finding water with the perennial stream which flows through the estate it’s the only source of water.

The villages in the vicinity also face the same problem during the dry spell. However, there are many manmade tanks known as ‘wewa’, built by ancient kings which are still available in the area for rain water harvesting.

In order to try and resolve the problems with water supply, Bibile estate contacted the local irrigation department to seek their help in building a new tank to harvest rainwater. At the same time, the irrigation department were also searching for a place to obtain a suitable type of clay for the

Rainforest Alliance

In May, the Rainforest Alliance team at the Hopton estate organised a

public exhibition on environmental protection, health & safety and bio diversity conservation with the participation of school children, estate employees’ children and youth volunteers. The lead auditor for Rainforest Alliance, Praveen Chopadai, was the chief guest and the aim of the exhibition was to raise awareness of sustainable management of farmland and homesteads.

On its 79th anniversary, the Celyon Planters’ Society honored Naresh

Ratwatte by showing its appreciation for the dynamic role he has played in the plantation industry as Chairman and Managing Director of Finlays Tea Estates. The award was presented by the Honourable Speaker of Parliament, Karu Jayasuriya on 26 September at Waters Edge, Colombo.

The first harvest from the bee keeping trials on the Dammeria B

and Bibile estates took place in late August and early September. With the help of the Department of Agriculture, the Dammeria B estate produced 17.85kg of honey from six hives, while the Bibile estate harvested 26kg of honey from nine hives. In total both estates maintain a total of 40 hives.

Rainwater harvesting tank

restoration of the Malipotha tank situated close to the Bibile estate.

The cost of restoring the Malipotha tank has been estimated to be in the region of Rs.212 million. Following the proposed works, it will feed 202 hectares of agricultural land in the Bibile area, being the largest irrigation restoration project in the area.

As the soil on the site identified for the rain water harvesting tank on the Bibile was exactly the type of clay soil that the irrigation department had been searching for, the estate agreed to allow the soil to be collected for the Malipotha irrigation project. In return the estate benefited from the free excavation for their new tank.

Working together with the irrigation department, we have now constructed a new tank on the Bible estate with a capacity to hold 66.6 million litres of rainwater which will increase to 18.5 million litres by the end of the second phase of excavations, providing total rainwater harvesting capacity of 85.1 million litres per year.

Training on cinnamon and coffee planting atDelmar estate

The newly reacquired estates in the Ragala zone are looking for

alternative crops which can be grown on unproductive land. Trials of cinnamon and coffee on the Delmar estate have started, with the help of the Sri Lankan agriculture department.

On 8 October, the Delmar estate held a training programme which included officials from the Export Agriculture Department, to educate staff on cinnamon and coffee plantation maintenance and processing.

Award for Naresh Ratwatte

Bee keeping

20

December 2015

Casa Fuentes News

Recent presidential elections went off reasonably peacefully.

Over the past few months we have recruited a number of new starters including Fernando Perez Zambon, our new Financial Controller and his assistant, Marina Tirinato. Dennis Carboni has been recruited to take up the position of IT Manager and Adriana Tarnowski as Laboratory Analyst. Lastly, but not least we have recruited Ruben Franco who will manage technical health & safety issues and Ricardo Acosta, who is our new agronomist.

Good progress has been made with health and safety improvements this year with the introduction of dust aspiration and wood chip systems. Guillermo Rendon, Head of Maintenance and Projects, represents Casa Fuentes on the main Group Health & Safety Committee.

A new office is being built in Obera to house all our administration staff, and is due to be completed by the end of this year.

Various initiatives are ongoing to improve the reporting systems across the company to ensure that they are in line with Finlays standards.

The current environment is very challenging with high inflation and strong competition for sales, but we are looking forward to working with Finlays and to taking Casa Fuentes into an exciting new era.

The tea season started a month late this year and didn’t get underway until November. This was partly because the Government failed to set the price for up-growers (the people who grow the leaf for us), but also because Casa Fuentes has had lots of rain and flooding which has affected production.Antonio Fernández Espinoza

Managing Director

Business update

21

Volume 52/No.2

Alejo started his career as an operator in Oberá sorting plant,

and quickly progressed to managing the administrative offices in the small town of La Colonia 25 de Mayo, 80km from Oberá.

By 1991, he was managing the Tabay factory and had started to investigate green leaf processes, by testing soil structure, fertilization, harvest and pruning.

Every year on Labor Day, all factories take part in a football

tournament organised by the social club, followed by a great barbecue, attended by all employees. The winning team this year was Campo Viera.

Labour Day is a public holiday in Argentina and is celebrated on 1 May. It honours the labor movement and the contributions workers have made to the strength and prosperity of the country. It is also associated with the start of spring.

Alejo Ramirez celebrates 40 years of service

As a result he increased harvested leaf per hectare from 5,000kg to 18,000kg. This interested Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial (INTA) who asked him to share his knowledge with the tea producers of Misiones at the Annual Capacitation and Information Working Day which takes place every August.

20 years of Imaflora

The Casa Fuentes team were recognised for

their outstanding performance

Alejo Ramirez recently celebrated 40 years of service with Casa Fuentes.

Alejo Ramirez at

his celebration On Tuesday 20 October, Ernesto González, Operational Director and Marcelo Scotto, Agronomist Engineer, commemorated 20 years of Imaflora in Piracicaba Brasil Imaflora (Instituto de Manejo e Certificação Florestal e Agrícola) is a Brazilian, non-profit organization that was established in 1995 to promote the conservation and sustainable use of natural resources and to generate social benefits in forestry and agriculture

As part of the celebrations there was a seminar entitled ‘The Challenges and Ways for Sustainability in Rural Areas’ which looked at the challenges for sustainability in rural areas, specifically forestry, pulp mills, coffee, cocoa, chestnuts, sugar and livestock. All panelists agreed that a key issue was “climate change” and its impact on sustainable agriculture.

Ernesto Gonzalez, Export Manager, praised the entire team and said ‘we will continue on this path of sustainable agriculture and continuous improvement’.

This event was a significant one for Imaflora and Casa Fuentes SACIFI was honored to be recognised for their outstanding performance in operating ability and their dedication to continuous improvement as a sustainable agriculture enterprise.

The social club

Inter country plantations meeting (ICPM), Kenya

For the first time Casa Fuentes took part in a Finlays global meeting.

Our representatives at the ICPM were Ernesto Gonzalez (Operational Director), Sergio Campaya (Misiones Manager), Marcelo Scotto

(Agronomist) and Guillermo Rendon (Maintenance Manager).

The opportunity to exchange information will be a great benefit to Casa Fuentes and in particular will help improve our production process.

The victorious Campo Viera footbal team

22

December 2015

Extracts & Ingredients News

The internal re-focus which is based on providing tailor made solutions from traceable and

sustainable sources, is in response to the changing face of our markets, customers and consumers. Whether these changes relate to the development of our sustainable supply programme, the improvement of existing capacity, introduction of new capacity or rapid expansion of our innovation centres, they are all focused on one thing … the customer.

In order to fulfil this vision it is critical that we have the right people in place with the right skill sets. To this end I am delighted to report that during the past year we have added much needed additional resource across all our global operations. This input of fresh talent is great for the business, as it not only grows our knowledge base and expertise but also allows us to be challenged on the way we think and conduct our business. This in turn helps facilitate productive change, which in today’s high speed environment is more important than it has ever been if we are to remain relevant and competitive. Heritage and tradition are very important within the mix and are valued both by our employees and customers, however we are acutely aware that this must be balanced with the need to innovate and evolve in order to meet our customer’s ever changing requirements.

Neil WillsherMD

Since my last report the team have been extremely busy focusing on the future through the many improvement projects we currently have underway around the world.

The continued expansion of our global operations and customer base has meant that we have spent much time engaging with current and potential new customers at roadshows and various industry exhibitions across Europe, USA, Japan and China. At these events we continue to generate huge interest in our expanding global product portfolio of leaf teas and tea, coffee & botanical extracts. We have been delighted with customer interest in certain specific developments exhibited; especially those focused on health and wellbeing and premium speciality product offerings including instant green teas, clean oolong tea, concentrated aromas, regional speciality extracts as well as iced and cold brew coffees.

The global industry continues its healthy growth albeit with a slight slowdown due to the well documented problems affecting China. However, as a global leader continually developing our unique proposition from sourcing and supply through to the manufacture of tea, coffee and botanical extracts and the provision of innovative customer focused solutions, we are well placed to win - the future looks very bright.

Business update

23

Volume 52/No.2

The tea trading team in Swire House ran tea tasting induction

demonstrations in November and December for new staff and those who have never experienced the tea tasting process before. The sessions were well attended and are planned to become a more regular occurrence.

Over 120 distinguished guests, alumni and students from the UK and across Europe attended the event, including China’s Ambassador to the UK and Northern Ireland, the Director-General of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, as well as five University Presidents, four Provosts, and other Deans and Vice Presidents of many of HKUST’s partner universities across Europe.

Professor Sir John Pendry, HKUST visiting Professor and Chair of Theoretical Solid State Physics at Imperial College London, and five well-known professors from HKUST gave lectures as part of the Seminar of Science – Vision into the Future.

HKUST is a leading, international research university, in the fields of science, technology, business and humanities. In just 25 years, HKUST is now ranked amongst the top universities globally. Swire’s campus recruitment activities in HKUST receive a lot of interest from their students as a result of which it is hoped that both will be able to co-operate further in the the future.

Damin News

Mr Christian Johansen has been appointed COO and a Director of Damin Food International, with effect from 1 September.

Mr Johansen joined the Swire Group in August 2004 and worked in Swire Beverages for ten years, where his last role was Sales & Marketing Director for Fujian Province.

New COO for Damin

Huafu attended HKUST’s 25th anniversaryFEI UK

Huafu Wang of FEI’s London office was invited by Professor Tony Chan, the President of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) to attend of their 25th anniversary celebrations which were held in London on 14 November.

George Slattery, Sales Room Manager with the tea

tasting set up and ready to go

Huafu Wang, Technical Manager, FEI (l) and

Professor Tony Chan (r) at the 25th anniversary celebrations

Patrick Lee held several roles at Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co Ltd which he joined in August 1998 as an Accounts Analyst.

He transferred to John Swire & Sons (HK) Ltd in August 2015 from where he was seconded to Damin International Holdings Limited to take up the post of Chief Financial Officer for Damin Foodstuffs (Zhangzhou) Co Ltd.

Patrick Lee

Prior to moving to Damin, he was Managing Director of Finlays Colombo PLC from July 2014 to August 2015.

He is a graduate of Edinburgh University, where he read Chinese.

24

December 2015

Extracts & Ingredients News

Long Service

25 Years of ServicePatricia McGovern, HR DirectorAntonio Botelho, Material Handler

As part of the Company’s social responsibility program, Finlays

offers free education for the children of employees on the Group’s tea estates in Kenya. Over the years Finlays has built and supports 15 schools, where more than 6,400 children attend classes. During February, with the help of James Calberson and Pat McGovern, a book drive was organized in Florham Park and Lincoln to help build a library for the students. A special thank you goes out to Charley Albert, the 10 year old daughter of Mike Albert who works in Florham Park. When Charley was told of this initiative, she organized a drive of her own at her school and worked tirelessly to collect as many books as possible, making her own posters and signs to advertise the drive. Charley’s efforts were so successful that the majority of the books collected were from her efforts alone! These books are now on their way to Kenya where they will be read and enjoyed by children on the estates. We would like to thank everyone who contributed to making the book drive such a success.

Gez Williams, who is based in the London office also organized a similar drive with three boxes of books being collected in Swire House and sent to Kericho children.

Nigel McGinnVice President of Operations

Nigel McGinn has been appointed Vice President of Operations for FEI USA reporting

to CEO Steve Olyha. Nigel is responsible for the United States manufacturing operations, working with business unit leaders to ensure an alignment of group strategic goals.

With a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Food Technology, Nigel has been involved in the food business across the UK, Europe and the USA for the past 26 years. Most recently he was the Vice President of Operations for Kettle Cuisine in Lynn, Massachusetts where he was instrumental in the designing, building and commissioning of a purpose built refrigerated food facility.

Nigel is originally from Northern Ireland. He is married to Catherine and, in his spare time, is a motorsport enthusiast.

Appointments

Robert HobsonNational Account Director

Robert joined the company in June and brings over 20 years of experience in

the food and beverage industry. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in International Business, as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese Mandarin from the University of Maryland.

In his spare time, Robert enjoys spending time with his family. He also enjoys restoring old cars, and building furniture in his woodshop.

Bob SoaresQuality Assurance Manager

Bob joined the company in July to oversee the daily operation of the

laboratory and staff, including food safety and quality. Bob has nearly 20 years’ experience in several SQF certified facilities and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Performance Physiology from the University of Massachusetts.

In his spare time, Bob enjoys amateur astronomy, collecting vintage space memorabilia and spending time with his family.

Stephen Olyha takes over as CEO

In October, Steve Olyha was promoted

from Chief Operating Officer to Chief Executive Officer of Finlay Extracts & Ingredients USA. He takes over from

Pat O’Keefe who left the Group after eight years. Steve is a key member of the Group management team

developing strategy for the global growth of the tea and coffee extract businesses.

Steve brings over 25 years’ professional experience across multiple business environments. He began his career in the Maxwell House Division of General Foods Corporation.

Most recently, he served as CEO of REV2Networks, a privately held software and solutions company specializing in business performance improvement and enterprise risk management. Prior to that, he served as Vice President of World-Wide Sales for Unisys Corporation, and has held numerous other senior management positions.

Magical Christmas 2015

25

Volume 52/No.2

The market in which we operate continues to be extremely tough with brand and private

label fighting for the same customers through price and promotions.

Mainstream black tea has recovered slightly with sales by value up 1% mainly driven by brands, although much of this is via deep cut promotions. The fruit & herbal and green tea markets continue to grow in both volume and value terms whilst speciality tea volumes have been flat although there has been a 7% growth in value.

Our tertiary brands, Café Express, Penny Black and Farthings tea continue to go from strength to strength. Sales year on year are currently 170% ahead with a key Café Express feature in Aldi delivering strong growth. A 160s teabag line is being launched into the discount sector to meet increasing demand from consumers.

Total roast & ground coffee sales are strong but standard roast & ground coffee sales are flat. Growth has been driven by coffee pods which are now worth a staggering £117million and are growing by 22% in volume and 34% in value. This does not include the estimate £150 million of Nespresso pods which are sold on-line or via Nespresso stores.

The ‘compatible’ Nespresso pod market which is sold via retail grocery is now worth £5 million per annum which is an increase of 122% on the previous year. Before the end of the year we will enter this growing ‘compatible’ market with four lines under our London Coffee Company brand. We will also work with our key coffee customers to launch private label options although this market is currently 100% brand dominated.

The London Tea Company is starting to pick up speed, particularly in the UK where our key distribution partners are introducing new customers and listings every week. With sales up 60% year on year and confidence growing, we are investing in additional sales and marketing resource and increasing marketing spend to drive trials and awareness with our consumers. As a result Sophie Johnson has joined as Marketing Manager from Concha y Toro wines and Shyam Lakhani as Business Development Executive from Kingfisher Breweries. We will also be recruiting a Territory Manager to drive sales in Central London. We have recently launched the ‘Brew Crew’ which is a small but distinctive addition to our range of gifting products which will be sold in premium gifting stores. Further details can be had from our website at www.londontea.co.uk.

Ian BrysonMD

The Beverages turnaround continues and is well ahead of plan whilst The London Tea Company, although behind budget, is already 60% ahead of last years’ sales.

Working with our colleagues in Extracts & Ingredients we are investigating a number of projects involving iced teas and coffees, liquid tea and cold brew coffee about which we hope to bring you more news in future issues.

Finally during the first week of November our South Elmsall site was audited by the British Retail Consortium gaining an AA Grade which is the highest obtainable, an excellent result following on as it did from the green status we were awarded after an unannounced Tesco audit in September.

Sales data: Kantar 52 week ending 13th September 2015

Beverages News

Business update

26

December 2015

Beverages News

Awards

Finlay Beverages’ Italian Espresso

beans 1kg bag supplied to Booker Wholesale have won the Wholesale Catering Q Award for Hot Beverages. This will result in the beans being heavily featured in-store as a result of this success.

The Lichfield Speciality Green Tea won the Café Q Award Gold. This will greatly strengthen their presence in delivering quality products in the out of home café/coffee bar market as well as the Company’s general foodservice customer base.

Girl Guides tea tasting

The purpose built African village was complete with school,

marketplace and indigenous fruit, vegetables and livestock to illustrate the differences in farming, food and lifestyle between the UK and African countries. Around 5,000 school children visited the site.

Derek and Daniel had their own stand with maps of tea growing countries, a real tea plant, and lots of different tea memorabilia incliuding teapots, tea tins and tea caddies.

Spar

Wear it pink for breastcancer fund raiser

The children were also able to touch and smell a variety of different dried teas.

Derek and Daniel gave each group of children a short talk and the opportunity to taste teas. The most popular were the fruit teas but to finish the children tasted Lapsang Souchong which is a very smokey Chinese tea; they squealed with laughter at this tea which they said was “yukky”!

It was a truly memorable day for the children and for Derek and Daniel.

Taste of Africa

On Friday 23 October Finlay Beverages raised funds for the

Wear it Pink campaign; everyone wore a pink item of clothing and the production staff wore pink hairnets. A whopping £192 was raised.

After a successful tasting session in Spar Head Office, Harrow,

Finlay Beverages have secured two new listings commencing December 2015.These are Earl Grey 50s & Green Tea 50s.

Both lines will be supplied direct to the five Spar distributors – Appleby Westward Group Limited – Saltash, CJ Lang – Dundee, AF Blakemore – West Midlands, Henderson Wholesale Ltd – Ireland and James Hall – Preston who collectively cover over 2,400 stores within the UK.

This is a great addition to our convenience market business following the company’s success with Costcutter.

Daniel Moore, tea buyer & taster, teamed up with the Rossington

girl guides in Doncaster to conduct a mini tea tasting experience. The session helped the Girl Guides in working towards their ‘Senses Badge’. Daniel did a great presentation about ‘bush to cup’, followed by an interactive tea tasting session.

In July Derek Horton and Daniel Moore, tea buyers and blenders, attended the Kids Country Food and Farming event which was part of the Taste of Africa celebration at the East of England Showground in Peterborough.

27

Volume 52/No.2

Awards

The London Tea Company has been awarded another five Great

Taste awards! Our Rooibos, Rooibos Chilli Chocolate and Raspberry, Ginger & Vanilla pyramids, as well as our Peach & Rhubarb envelopes all won whilst the loose leaf London Breakfast won a coveted 2 star award.

London Tea received yet more positive feedback on their blends

and high praise for the ‘stand-out’ gifting lines at the Speciality Fine Food Fair held at London Olympia in September. The trade were given a teaser of their new gifting lines, which along with the rest of London

The Brew Crew The great tea giveaway

Tis the season to increase brand recognition! Throughout

November five lucky winners, one from each of the events we attended, one from PR and one from our social medial channels each won a year’s supply of London Tea blends.

London Tea

October saw our brand new London Tea gifting lines are

hitting the shelves! These are already receiving wonderful feedback from both customers and consumers alike. Samples have been sent to the likes of Selfridges and The Indian Tea Company and are already being sold at ‘We Built This City’, recently awarded best shop in Soho 2015 by Time Out Magazine.

Tea’s fantastic range were offered for sale at three pre-Christmas events held in November: the BBC Good Food Show, the Taste of Winter Show and the Ideal Homes Show, which attracted a total audience of over 150,000 visitors.

Events

Appointments London Tea

Sophie Johnson, Marketing Manager

Sophie joined London Tea in August, from Concha y Toro where she looked after the Casillero del Diablo,

Frontera and Fine Wine brand portfolio.

Shyam Lakhani, Business Development Executive

Shyam is our newest London Tea recruit, joining in September from his role of

Regional Account Manager at Kingfisher Beer Group.

Long service

Gary LittleGary Little, Mechanical Engineering Technician, celebrated 25 years working at Finlay Beverages.

Karen JohnsonKaren Johnson, Customer Services Manager, Supply Chain celebrated 25 years with Finlay Beverages on 7 November.

Karen was one of the first employees to work on the South Elmsall site having started before production commenced in the factory. She joined as an office clerk doing general administraion work including answering the telephones for the site.

Retirement

Tony Whitwham Tony Whitwham, Production Operator (Coffee) retired on 4 November after 10 years with the company.

28

December 2015

Sri Lanka News

Sri Lanka had both presidential and parliamentary elections in 2015. With these tumultuous

events completed we can now look forward to an increased focus on economic development and growth. Our tea packing business has done especially well this year benefiting from low tea prices which have helped the company as a whole outperform its budget. At the same time we were very sad to lose our General Sales Agency business for Cathay Pacific. We had been agents since 1991 but when Cathay started a direct-daily service between Hong Kong and Colombo in October this gave them the impetus to take over the management of their Si Lankan interests with effect from 1 January 2016. We wish them well.

Results to date have been helped by exchange rate movements which have been particularly favourable for our tea and insurance brokering businesses. Unfortunately low tea prices and favourable exchange rate gains won’t last forever and we do expect tea prices to strengthen in 2016. This will bring a cheer to our sister companies running tea estates but here at Finlays Colombo we will need to work even harder to find new customers and grow our various business lines.

The tea business has done well to increase its presence in Saudi Arabia with our brand now available in new regions of the country. At the same time a lot of effort is being put into generating a wider customer base across other markets.

Our insurance brokering business has done well in a difficult market, benefiting from strong policy renewal management. However, it is proving very difficult to generate profitable new business in the current, very competitive, insurance market. Consolidation is expected as there are far too many brokering companies chasing too little business. We should come out of such a process stronger than before but this will take patience and skill.

The Pest Control and Hygiene businesses continue to grow at a steady pace helped by expansion of our branch network in Kandy and Galle. The timing of these new branch openings looks right as they have got off to a reasonably good start.

Finally our Cold Store has experienced some fairly dramatic changes in customer mix during 2015 – never a welcome development for a cold storage operation – but has weathered these successfully by focusing on bulk product storage opportunities and has ended the year strongly. 2016 will see a major installation of solar panels on the roof of the cold store in order to offset anticipated increases in electricity costs. This is an exciting project for us and will be one of the largest of its type in the country.

2015 has turned out to be an exciting year for both Sri Lanka and Finlays Colombo. Across the country a sense of optimism is in the air.Hunter Crawford

CEO

Business update

29

Volume 52/No.2

Hawaiian night

Illuminate 15

Finlays Colombo took on the sponsorship of ‘Illuminate 15’,

a community service project organised jointly by the Rotaract Clubs of the Universities of Moratuwa and Sri Jayewardenapura together with the Ministry of Education and Wijeya Newspapers Limited.

The project is aimed at enhancing the English language skills and soft skills of underprivileged youngsters in Sri Lanka. The school selected by the Ministry of Education for this project is Dudley Senanayake College in Narahenpita. The majority of the students are from underprivileged backgrounds whose poor English skills mean that they rarely get the opportunity to make their dreams a reality despite any potential they may have. Illuminate 15 will focus on helping these students to pass the Ordinary Level English exam and then continue to encourage and develop their interest in the English language.In addition to providing the necessary finance, Finlays will also evaluate, feedback and offer mentoring to make the project more meaningful to the beneficiaries.

Finlays Colombo are private sector pioneers in the preservation of

timber by a vacuum pressure impregnation technique using Celcure AP (CCA) wood preservative, This was introduced to the country in 1992 as a service to the construction industry and other users of timber under a franchise agreement with Rentokil.

The main objective of the treatment is to protect the timber from wood destroying agents such as wood borers, fungi and termites and enhance its durability. Celcure CB 90 (CCB) is also used in the process having been approved for use by the Register of Pesticides in Sri Lanka.

This is a water borne patented wood preservative and is certified under ISO 9001 : 2008 by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution which gives the customers the assurance of an effective treatment service.

The company’s main customers are the leisure sector and the construction industry followed by government led initiatives and house builders.Timber treated by us is also exported to the Maldives to be used in hotel projects.

As the current treatment method has been used for many years, a visit was paid recently to Malaysia to explore new technologies and techniques some of which will be included in our operations in the future.

Pioneering timber preservation

Health and safety strategy

Finlays Colombo places the highest priority on ensuring that its

facilities are safe for employees and all those who visit company sites. This is key to ensuring operational efficiency and sustainability. Finlays Corporate Health and Safety Management System (CHSMS) is a structured approach to achieving our health and safety objectives and managing health and safety risks associated with our business.

All employees are encouraged to contribute ideas towards greater health and safety in the workplace, and also to become aware of what good safety performance actually means in terms of their own jobs.

The main factors used to measure the effectiveness and performance of our health & safety executive management system are (1) accident reporting and investigation which paves the way for recording , investigating and analysing all incidents and accidents; (2) the assessment of risks involved in all of the organisation’s activities;

and (3) task oriented and site specific training/initiatives

and objectives, which are implemented across

the Group.

Finlays Recreation Club, which organises sporting and

recreational activities for Finlays Colombo staff, held its annual get-together on 5 September with a “Hawaiian Night” theme. The event was held at the Barracuda Sea Food & Grill restaurant which is located on a beach, south of Colombo. Over 300 members and guests attended an evening of games and dancing. the main highlights of which were the limbo and traditional baila dancing competitions.

Timber being vacuum

pressure treated

30

December 2015

Ever evolvingThe discerning reader will notice that our logo and the Finlays magazine have a brand new look. These updates result from the recent refocus of the wider Finlays business. Ash Kahrl, Group Head of Corporate Communications explains more.

Our brand is one of our most important assets. It is the means by which we manage our reputation. It is what we want people to think and feel about us, the emotional connection we make with our customers and employees, as well as the level of quality and trust that we provide. The logo is an important part of our brand.

1Coat of arms1876

It is very rare for a commercial concern to have the privilege of using and registering a city’s coat of arms, but in view of Finlays prominent position in trade, the Glasgow City Council duly granted permission for the use of the City’s Arms as a trade mark by the Company, which was registered in 1876 under No. 5238.

The ever evolving

Finlays logo through

the years

Over the years as Finlays has grown and evolved, so has its logo.”

1 2

3 4

5

GROUP

6

31

Volume 52/No.2

2Heritage crestPost 1909

Over the years as Finlays has grown and evolved, so has its logo. Each logo iteration was seen at the time as a logical step in the process of change and development within Finlays.

3Thistle logo Early 1960s

Created when the company was still based in Scotland, the thistle reflected our then heritage, personality and values. These stem from our rich history and passion for producing responsible, innovative and sustainable products.

4Old leaf logo1998

The ‘leaf’ symbol is derived from our historic tea leaf equity; an important part of our heritage and is the business that has been most influential in terms of our evolution, our ways of working, our values and our personality.

5New leaf logo2007

In 2007 the leaf graphic was evolved to reflect the broader values and personality of our group of businesses, demonstrating naturalness as well as our ability to develop and grow.

61750 logo2015

Our most recent logo evolution shines a light on our history. Our rich past and tradition is

fundamental to what we are today and we are proud

of our heritage and passionate about our future.

In recent years we have been much more rigorous in applying consistency across all touch points, supported with a set of clear and comprehensive guidelines. These guidelines provide the basic elements of our brand identity and show how we can express our brand through the logo, colours, photography and type.

All changeThe magazine has also benefited from an update. We have reverted back to the original size of the magazine when it was first printed in the spring of 1963, a change which we feel is easier to manage and in line with many modern day publications. The layout is designed to be clean, classy and journal-like. Inspiration for the editorial pages has been taken from some of the new style newspapers.

We have built and developed on the successes of previous editions with improved paper, ease of navigation, more distinctive typography and people-driven content. We believe our readers seek a magazine that is thought provoking with interesting photography, which they’ll want to read from cover to cover. It is designed to be, and is often recognised as, a barometer of life at Finlays.

We have a rich history

which is fundamental

today

2

Post 1909 Heritage crest

1800 1900 2000Early 1960s Thistle logo

1998 Old leaf logo

2007 New leaf logo

2015 1750 logo

3 4 5

Finlays Magazine covers over the years

61

1876 Coat of arms

32

December 2015

Meeting consumer needs

Finlays USA is very much geared to developing innovative, customer-led tea and coffee

extract solutions. A variety of products are flavored for many of the leading consumer brands in the global food, dairy and beverage industry. Our proactive solutions approach utilizes the company’s longstanding global tea and coffee expertise at all stages in the process, from sourcing to extraction. We are able to provide customer solutions in a wide range of flavor applications including ice cream, iced cappuccino, ready-to-drink beverages, energy drinks, yogurt, soy beverages, candy, snack bars, and alcohol products.

Kim Cipriano, Director of Marketing, Finlay Extracts & Ingredients USA, provides an insight into the exciting opportunities currently being explored by the company.

In further positioning Finlays USA as a solutions provider, we also conduct market research for our customers through the use of our Solutions Center. This leading center combines an R&D lab with a consumer research site and a relationship with the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island. We use our R&D skills collaboratively with our customers to deliver product solutions. By conducting qualitative research for new product insight we benefit from a significant competitive advantage in a growing marketplace.

Recent trends have led us to focus on sparkling tea and cold brew coffee both of which we showcased at the annual IFT Food Expo tradeshow.”

Finlays stand at IFT,

Chicago

We use our marketing R&D skills in collaboration with our customers to deliver innovative product solutions

EXTRACTS & INGREDIENTS

33

Volume 52/No.2

Recent trends have led us to focus on sparkling tea and cold brew coffee both of which we showcased at the annual IFT Food Expo tradeshow. Sparkling tea is increasing in popularity as consumers in many countries seek to reduce consumption of carbonates (sodas) by turning to alternatives like carbonated RTD tea. Rapid growth of carbonated RTD teas has been aided by extensive new product development globally with retail sales in this category growing by 17% in 2014 to reach $839M. Carbonated RTD tea sales in the US grew 23% in 2014 to reach $529M, with health claims aiding the majority of the growth. The future of carbonated RTD tea is very positive, as producers take advantage of beverage consumers shopping around for healthier alternatives to soda. Tea offers versatility and goes well with numerous fruits and herbs allowing beverage makers to create a wide range of flavor combinations. As well-known brands like Lipton and Talking Rain enter the category, consumer awareness of carbonated RTD tea is expected to grow. As an example, the retail brand ICE grew sales from $14K to $5M in one year. In addition to the prototypes presented at IFT Food Expo, our lab team has provided sales staff with samples for key customers including sparkling blackberry mint black tea and sparkling mango orange black tea.

Also showing a recent market surge is ‘cold brew’ which refers to the process of steeping coffee grounds at room temperature or cold water for an extended period of time. This results in a cold brew coffee concentrate that is often diluted with water or milk, served hot, over ice, or blended. Cold brew coffee is not to be confused with iced coffee, which refers to coffee that is brewed hot and then chilled by pouring over ice or by adding ice. Finlays USA offers customers

multiple cold brew product offerings, including 100%

Arabica, Arabica/Robusta Blend, 100% Colombian, Fair trade, and Fair trade Organic. In addition, prototypes developed

recently include cold brew latte and cold brew coffee

with almond milk. The cold brew phenomenon is gaining popularity amongst food service chains such as Peet’s Coffee & Tea, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks.

Did you know that in the United States the number one non-alcoholic beverage trend in 2015 has been hand-crafted flavored sodas? Many have vegetable flavors such as cucumber, and are showing more prominence in the beverage market, frequently in combination with fruit flavors in teas. Rooibos tea, also known as red tea, bush tea, and redbush tea, has become one of the hottest trends of the year.

Our new brand messaging proudly positions Finlays USA at the forefront of developing solutions that specifically target these and other new applications for tea and coffee extracts.

Cold brew coffee is not

to be confused with iced

coffee Finlays provides a

wide range of flavor

applications

Products from our

Solutions Center

Carbonated RTD tea sales in the US 2014

$529MRapid growth of carbonated RTD teas has been aided by extensive new product development globally

$839M

Carbonated RTD tea sales globally

17% 23%

34

December 2015

Empowering women

Called Project Athena it recognises that gender equality and female

empowerment can’t be bolted on, but must be ingrained in the organisational culture, procedures and practices if it is to influence all the transactional processes within that organisation. Through targeted initiatives, governed by a policy framework JFK strives to tackle all gender based constraints within the company.

As a commitment to gender equality and female empowerment JFK developed a Gender Equality and Diversity policy and a strategic framework which was informed by key findings of a gender analysis undertaken in July 2014. The policy hopes to ensure that guidelines put in place lead to a more gender inclusive JFK. The strategic framework is governed by the following theory of change:-

Every country and every culture has tradition that is unique and helps make that country what it is, but just because something forms part of your past doesn’t make it right. There is no excuse for treating women as second class citizens.”Barrack Obama, 2015

Janet Ruto was recently recruited as Gender Empowerment Manager at James Finlay Kenya. She reports on a project which commits the company to championing gender equality and empowerment of women as a way of ensuring that all employees, regardless of their gender, have the same opportunities to realise their potential.

Theory of change

TEA ESTATES KENYA

STRATEGIES OUTCOMES IMPACT

Gender responsive /transformative policies procedures, practices development and operations

Gender quotas

Barriers / obstacles preventing women from climbing up the ladder and entering traditional male jobs identified and addressed

Skills training and personal development

Gender Awareness and elimination of all discriminatory practices (direct indirect)

Monitoring learning and accountability (sex disaggregated data routinely collected)

Gender inclusive JFK with 33% representation of women at all levels by 2017

Elimination of structural and attitudinal barriers and practices that create and reinforce sex segregation in employment

Skills and experience of women enhanced thus increasing their competitiveness for recruitment and promotion opportunities

Enhances chances for recruitment / promotion of women through set quotas

Fair / transparent recruitment and promotion that takes in key competencies

35

Volume 52/No.2

Milestones

– Despite JFK’s history of being male dominated, it has made significant progress in increasing the number of women at all levels including higher levels of management. Some of the key decision making positions held by women include the financial controller, factory and tea estate managers. Initiatives to increase female representation include management trainee programmes and apprenticeships for women in technology based jobs such as plumbing, masonry, mechanics, heavy machine operations and electricians, all of which were initially construed as a male domain.

– To promote a gender-inclusive work environment and increase gender awareness, several training sessions have been conducted for different bands of staff and the social committee. An organisational gender structure has been established with each unit having gender champions who support and monitor the gender deliverables in accordance with the strategic gender framework.

– To enhance women’s skills development and experience, several programmes have been set up. These include a lifeskills forum with role models, mentoring/coaching and women in leadership training. The leadership training targets talented women and supports them by identifying the skills gap and developing plans to enable them to compete on an equal footing with men for any promotion opportunities. Some of the key development areas are balancing work and family demands, the identification of leadership style and being an effective and authentic leader in a male dominated environment.

In eliminating all forms of discrimination, both direct and indirect, several policies have been developed and continuous auditing of processes is undertaken to ensure compliance. Gender inclusive automation processes have been embraced.

Work opportunities

A number of women have been trained on 20 mechanical tea harvesting machines which are operated by one person.

Other automated processes include the log splitter and the ecolog harvester and forwarder in the forestry department. This has ensured that jobs which initially required physical strength can now be done by both men and women.

Proactive monitoring is undertaken on a monthly basis. The data being collected is used to measure progress and drive future strategy.

Key challenges

– Invisible barriers that are ingrained within the subconscious due to patriarchal socialisation, resulting in an advantaged position of men over women within the system.

– Nature of the work – most of the work demands physical strength thus limiting female participation in some areas.

– The conveyer system of the job limits flexible working for women.

– Maternity and breastfeeding times seem costly, hence some managers prefer the men as a cost cutting strategy.

– Gender roles (care giving and household chores) are mainly seen as female responsibilities and these limit the time available for professional development at a personal level. This has resulted in a significant skills gap between men and women.

What is new on the gender desk?

JFK has launched a pilot project in partnership with HIVOs, a Dutch international non-government organization. HIVOs women@work campaign promotes and protects the rights of workers. A baseline survey has been undertaken and the key findings from which will inform the project design for the period 2016 – 2020.

36

December 2015

We reported a year ago on the benefits of our new sustainable waste

management system which had just recently been commissioned. The biogas plant has now been in operation for 17 months with the combined heat and power system having run for over 8000 hours generating 1,189,655 kWh of electricity and the same amount of heat energy. During that time waste from the flower farms and Saosa factory has ensured continuous production of gas and generation of electricity.

The biogas yield of substrates fed into the digester is fairly consistent for all the substrates although currently, the most important with the highest output of biogas is green tea waste followed by flower waste and spent black tea. So far we have recycled 1,477,000 kgs of flower waste, 1,736,000 kgs of spent green tea waste and 3,973,000 kgs of spent black tea waste.

The digested substrate is discharged into a slurry lagoon before being applied as a soil fertiliser to timber plantations, new field clearings and tea plantations. Trials on the application of slurry to tea are ongoing with a view to automating as much of the process as possible.

The benefits realised to date include:

– Production of electricity (160 kWh) and heat energy (160kWh).

– Waste reduction and the elimination of the need to dump bio-waste.

– Reduced greenhouse gas emissions and the mitigation of global warming

– Expenditure saved by the substitution of chemical fertilisers with slurry as a bio-fertiliser

– Income from the sale of slurry.

– Savings in the cost of disposal and treatment of substrates- mainly flowers and spent leaf

– Avoided costs of spreading flower waste in the forests

– Job creation

In conclusion, the plant has provided a forward-thinking sustainable approach in terms of power and heat generation, waste disposal and a source of bio-fertiliser. It has also demonstrated that the technology is robust and has the potential to satisfactorily deal the waste from both flowers and tea, the disposal of which has been a problem for Finlays whilst crucially biogas is a renewable energy source. We hope to put forward an expansion plan to double the size of the plant once the availability and quantities of the waste are confirmed.

Biogas bountyDenis Kibet Cheruiyot, Plant Manager and Hugo Douglas-Dufresne, Technical Director, JFK, provide an update on the operation of the company’s biogas plant in Kericho.

TEA ESTATES KENYA

The technology is robust and has the potential to satisfactorily deal with the waste from both flowers and tea.”

1,477,000 kgs of flower

waste

1,736,000 kgs of spent green

tea waste

3,973,000 kgs of spent black

tea waste

So far we have recycled

37

Volume 52/No.2

GROUP

David Dale – A Life

David Dale is a name which has featured in the magazine on a number of occasions

most recently in an article which looked at the company’s historic connection with The Royal Bank of Scotland. When Dale, in partnership with Scott Moncrieff, set up the Bank’s first agency in Glasgow in 1783, James Finlay was their first customer.

In a new biography David McLaren provides a comprehensive re-assessment of Dale’s life using extensive original research carried out since the publication of his earlier work focusing on Dale’s involvement at New Lanark. Published by Stenlake the book also makes the case that Dale deserves greater recognition for the development of New Lanark into what was arguably the most famous cotton community in the world and now a World Heritage site. Credit for this is generally given to his son-in-law, Robert Owen, who bought New Lanark from Dale in 1801 before forging his ‘new view’ of society based on the famous social and educational experiments which he carried out in the village. However New Lanark had gained an international reputation for social innovation long before Owen’s acquisition as evidenced by the long list of visitors from home and abroad who visited the mill. These included a Mr Finlay in 1796 and 1798. As this was just before his acquisition of Ballindalloch cotton mill in Balfron, it is not too fanciful to think that this could have been Kirkman, James Finlay’s son.

Kirkman also purchased Catrine Mill in 1801 from Dale and his partner Claud Alexander. Alexander, like Dale, had a wish to improve the conditions of those living and working in Catrine and had the mill built after he had bought the surrounding Ballochmyle Estate in 1785.

Throughout the book McLaren seeks to show that whilst Dale was a very successful entrepreneur who could be ruthless when the need arose, this was balanced with support for various projects which, although never likely to be commercially successful, helped to alleviate poverty and counter the threat of mass emigration to America. He also assesses Dale’s role in the campaign to abolish slavery, which is surprising given the source of his raw materials, and his involvement in a range of philanthropic and religious organisations centred mainly in Glasgow.

As contemporaries and neighbours, it is not surprising that James and Kirkman Finlay, fellow merchant adventurers, were present at many of the seminal events in Dale’s life. These included the historic 1783 meeting with Richard Arkwright, the pioneer of the English cotton industry, and the foundation in the same year of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, one of the first such organisations in the world.

A deeply religious man, Dale was an early adherent of what we now know as sustainability. Whilst much of what he did to improve the lot of children through the provision of accommodation and education in exchange for their employment might seem controversial now, this has to be viewed in the context of the general conditions prevailing at the end of the 18th century.

This scholarly but immensely readable biography is strongly recommended.

David Dale A Life by David J McLaren, Published by Stenlake Publishing Ltd, www.stenlake.co.uk, £25

Duncan Gilmour, Company Secretary, reviews a new biography of David Dale a pivotal but neglected figure in Scotland’s Industrial Revolution and explains how he influenced the early history of the company.

Catrine Mill

38

December 2015

The health & safety journey

The workplace has become, in general, a safer place in recent years. Work-related

accidents and illnesses have dropped steadily over the past decade and are at an all-time low. However, there remain a significantly high number of work related deaths, serious injuries and illnesses each year across all industries and geographies. With more than 20,000 colleagues operating across more than 10 different countries our business is no different.

We operate in a number of different continents across both the developed and developing world and whilst improvements have been made in the management of health and safety in recent years the rate of improvement remains stubbornly slow and the journey is far from finished.

Without doubt, the burden of occupational health and safety issues in a multinational business like ours is considerable when both the human and economic costs are considered. However the benefits of achieving outstanding health and safety performance are well documented. These include improved morale amongst colleagues leading to better performance, reduced insurance premiums, sick leave and compensation payments. In addition, by eliminating regulatory prosecutions with their associated fines and personal culpability, we are able to enhance our reputational image with both consumers and customers leading to improved sustainability and corporate social responsibility positioning.

As a business we are committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace for our colleagues and we expect our senior leaders to take a personal leadership role in delivering against this commitment. Health and safety commitments are enshrined in our group values and without leadership we will not achieve our goals and objectives. Health and safety management is integral to great leadership behaviours – it is not a bolt on.

There are a number of clear steps along the health and safety journey (see Fig 1.) and whilst we have made strides we remain some way from truly saying health and safety is business as usual and firmly embedded within the Group’s DNA.

To make the further steps needed along the journey towards health and safety management maturity and to reduce our global work related accidents and ill health statistics, we need to have clear strategies that are well communicated, well led, improve colleague engagement and have clear objectives and goals.

Julian Davies, Director Compliance & Risk, took over the Group health and safety brief at the end of last year and gives an insight into some of the challenges facing the business.

GROUP

As a business we are committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace for our colleagues

39

Volume 52/No.2

The core elements of any health and safety strategy should include the following objectives and expectations;

Leadership from the top

– Senior management and director involvement is critical in furthering health, safety and risk management throughout the Group’s operations.

Employee engagement

– Frequent communication is a failsafe way of raising safety and risk awareness amongst our colleagues.

Regular performance monitoring and measurement

– Periodic and objective self-assessments and audits in addition to larger corporate audits.

Competant colleagues, managers and directors

– Ensure colleagues at all levels are trained and empowered to perform in a way that enables them to achieve their expected performance level.

Robust risk identification and control

– Directors and senior managers need to own the top ‘x’ risks

in their business by understanding the risk management principles of Prioritisation - Proportionality - Auditability.

This list of expectations and objectives is not the

panacea to great health and safety management. However adopting these and others, together with the successful communication and implementation of them will, when led by top management, reward the Group with success.

Looking forward to 2016, and in particular our objectives for the year, I hope these will be determined by agreeing similar expectations across the Group.

In formulating a strategy to deliver our objectives I will need input from all parts of the Group.

Finally I would like to thank the Health & Safety Committee and everyone else for their continued commitment to improving working conditions for colleagues and visitors.

Senior management and director involvement is critical in furthering health,safety and risk management throughout the Group’s operations.”

I look forward

to getting your input.

Dependent– Management commitment

– Condition of employment

– Fear/Discipline

– Rules/Procedures

– Supervisor control, emphasis & goal

– Value all people

– Training

Independent– Personal knowledge, commitment & standards

– Internalization

– Personal value

– Care for self

– Practice & habits

– Individual recognition

Interdependent– Help others to conform

– Being brothers keeper

– Networking contributor

– Care for others

– Organisational pride

Reactive– Safety by natural instinct

– Compliance is the goal

– Delegated to safety manager

– Lack of management involvement

Inju

ry R

ates

Fig 1.

40

December 2015

GROUP

A day in the lifeWhat is your job title?

John Swire & Sons Internal Auditor (UK, Europe &Asia)

Where do you work?

James Finlay, Swire House, London

How long have you worked for Finlays and have you always done this job?

I have worked for Finlays for two years, joining in November 2013 from external audit accounting firm, Ernst & Young.

Please describe what a typical day is like for you.

If I am in the office, the day starts with breakfast whilst catching up with emails. From then on the day looks different depending on whether I’m on location on an audit (60-70% of the time) or in the office. Days consist of operational and financial reviews, risk assessments, investigations and meetings.

I enjoy ending the day with a zumba class in the evenings, and drinks and dinner with friends or family.

What are your three best attributes?

– Personable

– Resilient

– Dedicated

Did you think you’d end up where you are?

Based on my background in external audit for mining, oil, gas and utilities companies, no I didn’t think I’d end up here. However when an opportunity presented itself to join Finlays Internal Audit, it was the right fit for me especially given the organisation’s ethics.

Delyn Pindai

What do you like most about your job?

As Finlays and Swire are such diverse groups, there are many interesting things to learn about the businesses. Seeing the similarities and differences helps me to obtain a broader view and understanding of the Group.

What has been your proudest achievement at work?

My proudest achievement at work is not an isolated event but the working relationships built over time with people from all across the organisation and being part of a team which aims to add value to the business.

What is your motto in life?

‘If my life is fruitless it doesn’t matter who praises me. And if it’s fruitful it doesn’t matter who criticises me.’ John Bunyan

What would you have done if you didn’t do this job?

It would still be a career in finance but possibly in the Southern African countries as this is where my origins are.

What is the most treasured possession in your office?

As I mostly hot desk, it would have to be my laptop. I’d also say the support of the IA team, my peers and seniors.

If there was one thing you would change about your job – what would it be?

At this moment in time my commute into London!

As Finlays and Swire are such diverse groups, there are many interesting things to learn about the businesses.”

41

Volume 52/No.2

What is your job title?

Agronomist Manager

Where do you work?

Casa Fuentes, Argentina.

How long have you worked for Finlays and have you always done this job?

Although Casa Fuentes (CF) has only been part of Finlays for a short time I have been with CF for the last 25 years, always as an agronomist. In the 90’s the owner of CF, a brillant businessman called Antonio Fernández Espinoza, was a partner in a malting company. This was how I started by being given the chance to work in one of the main areas growing barley in Argentina. Contact with farmers, crop advice, purchase of barley and consignment to the malting plant and port were my main responsibilities . In 2000, I had the opportunity to take on a new challenge when CF became involved in a mixed tea and pines project in Misiones Province in Argentina. The target was transforming 2000 ha of jungle into a tea plantation and pine forest in a sensible and sustainable manner. An excellent team of labourers took part in the adventure. Today the farm is Rainforest Alliance Certified and takes care of the fauna and native trees, as well as water and soil. High quality clonal tea is grown and, 100 % mechanical harvested, on an estate where 300 ha of indigenous forest still remain.

Please describe what a typical day is like for you.

A typical day sees me in the country near tea crops and forestry. I drive a van and the trip to work takes 30 minutes. Every day is different and the events are so dynamic that they demand a fast and precise resolution. Keen observation, forecast and research are necessary. Managing the relationships with certified farmers and suppliers is also part of the job. At the end of the day I look forward to going home and sharing time with my family. For recreation I enjoy sports, running and swimming are part of a perfect day.

What are your three best attributes?

Teamwork is very important to me. Teamwork demands attitude, responsability, solidarity, confidence and effort. I always take this into consideration in my team.

I used to say; where everybody thinks the same, nobody thinks a lot. If I want people near me to express their ideas I have to hear their opinions.

I think we have an obligation to produce in a sustainable way with the least possible impact on the planet.

Did you think you’d end up where you are?

When I finished university I had to take a decision: investigation or production. Even though I enjoyed research, my interest in production was stronger. Today here I am, close to crops in the field where I chose to be.

What do you like most about your job?

The balance between biological elements and commercial aspects. This combination requires attention, creativity and equilibrium, if we want to be sustainable.

What has been your proudest achievement at work?

In my job my target is high production with máximum quality and food safety. This needs to be achieved in a safe manner whilst always considering commercial costs. Casa Fuentes was) and still is a leader in Argentina`s tea market and I am proud of the part I play.

What is your motto in life?

Absense from those we love is worse than death, and frustrated hopes are crueler than despair, but whoever tries for great things must suffer something.

What would you have done if you didn’t do this job?

This answer is not easy. I imagine I would have established a farm with my family. The production would be managed in a natural manner and, although commercial, fairtrade principles would apply.

What is the most treasured possession in your office?

I treasure most the level of commitment my team have in their work.

If there was one thing you would change about your job – what would it be?

In my opinion, knowledge is key so I would put aside one or two hours of the day to focus on training in specific aspects of the business for both myself and my staff.

Marcelo Fabián Scotto

42

December 2015

Announcements

Casa FuentesAlvezOn 27 July, to Soledad Noemi Galarza and Gabriel Elisandro Alvez, Operator, Acaraguá, a son, Ezequiel Alvez.

BarriosOn 25 March, to Maria Magdalena Correa and Victor Hugo Barrios, Operator, Oberá, a son, Maximo Bautista Barrios.

DainchukOn 3 March, to Camila Soledad Romanhuk and Ramon Miguel Dainchuk, Operator, Acaraguá, a daughter, Analia Lujan Dainchuk.

FalconOn 12 February, to Angela Mabel Gomez and Maximiliano G. Falcon, Operator, Oberá, a son, Juan Gabriel Falcon.

GimenezOn 24 October, to Matilde Micaela Acosta and Leogildo Dario Gimenez, Operator, Acaraguá, a son, Merari Mecal Gimenez.

GruberOn 20 January, to Monica Rivero and Hector Oscar Gruber, Operator, Campo Viera, a son, Gruber Yonatan Gabriel.

PessiniOn 10 March, to Rosana Mabel Ortiz and Jose Daniel Pessini, Foreman, Campo Grande, a daughter, Camila Daniela Pessini.

SequeiraOn 6 April, to Norma Beatriz Barrios and Marcos Gabriel Sequeira, Operator, Oberá-Italia, a son, Ulises Gabriel Sequeira.

ShurerOn 19 October, to Nancy Dure and Antonio Carlos Shurer, Operator, Acaraguá, a daughter, Francesca Nicol Shurer.

VeraOn 4 April, to Nancy Pedrozo and Jorge Raul Vera, Operator, Acaraguá, a daughter Melani Vera.

Finlay Extracts & IngredientsChirchirOn 16 June, to Lydia Metto and Isaiah Chirchir, Quality Assurance Technician, a son, Wayne Kipkirui.

Finlays ColomboDilanjayaOn 18 August, to Maduka Awanthi and Dinesh Dilanjaya, Reach Truck Operator, a son, Anosh Anjula.

HemanthaOn 22 January, to G. L. Deepani and Srilal Hemantha, Reach Truck Operator, a daughter, Geshmi Umayangana

RathnayakaOn 29 June, to P G R Upendra Kumari Gunarathna and R M Ruwansiri Rathnayaka, Manual Worker, a son, Danidu Thathsara Rathnayaka.

Finlay Extracts & Ingredients USAFindlay-ShirrasOn 10 January, to Jenny Perez, Regional Account Manager, and James Findlay-Shirras, a son, Douglas Diego Findlay-Shirras.

PinedoOn 21 September, to Catalina Pineda and Mauricio Pinedo, Latin American Sales Director, a son, Nicolas Pinedo Pineda.

Tea Estates Sri LankaBandaraOn 31 May, to Menaka Dinukshi and Dinusha Bandara, Senior Assistant Superintendent, Demodera Estate, a son, Kulana Dihein Lonitha Bandara.

Finlay BeveragesSteadman – JonesOn 2 August at Badsworth Church, Pontefract, Emma Jones, Finance Assistant to Oliver Steadman.

James Finlay Head OfficePato – UngOn 23 May at Redbridge Registry Office, Ilford, Sabine Ung, Financial Controller to Csaba Pato.

Finlays ColomboDe Silva – PereraOn 11 July at Royal Princess Hotel, Ja-ela, Neluka De Silva, Staff Officer at Finlay Cold Storage, to Dinusha Perera.

Casa FuentesBayer – TotelOn 10 September, Ruben Abral Bayer, Operator, Acaragua, to Viviana Marcia Totel.

Mendez – ZebrukOn 21 March, Luis Alberto Diaz Mendez, Export Customs Officer, Obera-Italia, to Patricia Raquel Zebruk.

Nilson – SchieveOn 4 April, Pablo Prytz Nilson, Export Customs Officer in Obera-Italia, to Luciana Raquel Schieve.

Sequeira – BarriosOn 6 April, Marcos Gabriel Sequeira, Operator, Obera-Italia, to Norma Beatriz Barrios.

Pessini – OrtizOn 10 March, Jose Daniel Pessini, Foreman, Campo Grande, to Rosana Mabel Ortiz.

Tea Estates Sri LankaKumarasinghe – RathnayakeOn 25 May at Kandy, Hashintha Lakshan Kumarasinghe, Factory Executive, Hopton Estate, to Wimukthi Oshin Rathnayake.

Births Marriages

43

Volume 52/No.2

James FinlayCoenOn 24 June, Isobel Crawford, aged 94, widow of Sammy, a long-time member of the London office.

James Finlay Investment ManagementSawersOn 14 November, Margaret, aged 82. She leaves a widower, Arthur.

George Payne/ Finlay BeveragesChurchillOn 23 June, Dora Charlotte, aged 89.

ClarkOn 4 August, Dorothy, aged 84.

CodlingOn 18 June, Hilda Mabel, aged 99, widow of Edward Codling who worked for Paynes and was in charge of the engineering stores in Croydon.

HillOn 22 November suddenly at home, Gordon, aged 87. He leaves a widow, Rhona. Gordon was the Sales Director of the Confectionery Division. A larger than life character he was latterly a stalwart of many London pensioners’ reunions.

MorganOn 24 August, Ernest, aged 89. Ernie worked in the dispatch/distribution office in the warehouse at Croydon and was a great supporter of the sports and social club of which he was chairman. He was commonly known as “Pass the Tea Urn”! Latterly Ernie was a great supporter of the annual pensioners’ reunions.

OffenOn 12 August, Christopher, aged 69.

SmithOn 15 August, Sylvia Pamela, aged 77. Sylvia worked in the Wages Department in Croydon.

WebbOn 23 May, Eric, aged 86. Eric was Production Director for Confectionary and Beverages and was the instigator in expanding the beverages side with the sites at Swindon for tea and the tea and coffee manufacturing facility at South Elmsall. He leaves a widow, Moyra.

Tea CompaniesDattaOn 5 July, in Mumbai, after a bravely borne affliction, Kunal (Kuttu) Datta, aged 79, beloved husband of Benita. Before being transferred to Calcutta. Kuttu spent many years as a tea planter with the Kanan Devan Hills Produce Co. He excelled at cricket, golf, tennis and squash and had a keen interest in amateur dramatics. In Calcutta, he was honorary secretary of the Indian Golf Union for a time.

ThomsonOn 23 September, Joan Madeleine, aged 101.

TullieOn 9 August, Mabel Bell, aged 100, in Tasmania.

We are sad to report the deaths of the following former members of the Finlays family.

Obituary

Lady CampbellMary Campbell the wife of the company’s late Chairman, Sir Colin Campbell passed away on 10 July aged 86 after a short illness. Always a tremendous support to Sir Colin, generations of Finlays staff working both in the UK and abroad will have very happy memories of her wonderful hospitality at Kilbryde. One of the highlights of the Finlay year was supper at Kilbryde after the annual golf competition – the only downside was the need to drive home afterwards! The company and John Swire & Sons were represented at a well attended service of thanksgiving held in Kilbryde chapel on 15 August.

Duncan Gilmour

Finlays Magazine is published half yearly by James Finlay Limited, Swire House, 59 Buckingham Gate, London SW1E 6AJ.

Email: magazine@finlays.net

www.finlays.net