Fonterra in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is one of Fonterra’s most important international markets. We have been exporting our New Zealand dairy products to Sri Lanka for more than 30 years. Our nutritional dairy products are manufactured from milk produced from the green pastures of New Zealand or by the dairy farmers of Sri Lanka.
Our iconic ANCHOR™ brand is the best-known brand in Sri Lanka and the number-one selling full cream milk powder in the country. Together with our renowned RATTHI™, NEWDALE™ and ANLENE™, all our products are known for their goodness, quality and reliability.
Fonterra Brands Lanka has a strong commitment to the country. We employ more than 650 people and our factory at Bigyama processes the milk from around 3,000 local dairy farmers. We support a range of local programmes to raise nutritional standards and are also working closely to help the development of the local dairy farming industry.
Our Products
Anchor – Proven Nutrition
Up to three million glasses of Sri Lanka’s best-loved Anchor milk are consumed on the island every day. Anchor is Fonterra’s flagship brand, providing quality nutritional products to Sri Lankan families for the past 25 years. It is currently the number one FCMP brand in Sri Lanka.
Anchor Full Cream Milk Powder comes in a range of different pack sizes - 75g, 250g, 400g, and 1kg - and the Anchor Instant variant has two pack sizes of 400g and 1kg.
Anchor 1+ is specially developed for children between the ages of one and three by expert nutritionists. Anchor 1+ contains Nutri-Care, a special bundle of nutrients comprised of vitamins A, C, E and zinc, selenium and iron for a strong immune system.
The Anchor Institute is a network of experts who are passionate about nutrition and the goodness of milk. The Anchor Institute research grants support original research in key areas of human nutrition for child and family health.
Anlene – Expert in Bone Nutrition
Anlene is the only milk with added vitamin D and minerals which is clinically proven* to help maintain bones and prevent osteoporosis. Backed by US$50 million of leading bone science research, Anlene is specially formulated for adults and is enriched with a superior combination of essential bone nutrients - calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, zinc and protein. This unique formulation helps ensure effective absorption of bone nutrients.
Anlene is currently available as:
- High Calcium Non Fat Milk Powder
- High Calcium Full Cream Milk Powder
- High Calcium Malted Milk Drink
- High Calcium Pasteurised Milk
- High Calcium Yoghurt.
In line with our commitment to better bone health, Anlene is a global sponsor of the International Osteoporosis Foundation and also holds a corporate membership in Osteoporosis Sri Lanka. In the past year, we have conducted more than 12,000 free bone density scans on consumers across Sri Lanka, helping to build greater awareness of bone health.
Ratthi – The Smart Choice
Ratthi is one of the leading household brands in Sri Lanka and the second biggest milk brand in the market, with nutritional products for the whole family that include full cream milk powder, tea creamer and yoghurt.
Anchor Newdale
Anchor Newdale is our fresh dairy brand and the number one yoghurt brand in Sri Lanka, built on the proposition of ‘tasty nutrition’. The product portfolio contains a range of liquid and cultured products including set and stirred yoghurts, flavoured milk, curd and fresh milk. Since its launch in 1997, the brand has also been rated as kids' number one yoghurt brand.
Anchor Newdale’s Real Fruit Set Yoghurt combines nutritious yoghurt with juicy fruit pieces. The entire Anchor Newdale range is available in form-filled sealed four packs.
Anmum
Underpinned by US$50 million of research into nutrition, maternal and infant health and child development, Anmum was created to boost the health of mothers and babies.
Our Operations
Our manufacturing operations are based at Bigyama where we produce both liquid and powdered dairy products. A LKR1.2 billion expansion to the Biyagama plant was commissioned in late 2008, increasing output by 40 per cent and helping to meet growing demand for high standard, nutritional dairy products in Sri Lanka.
The powder plant is a centre for milk powder blending and repacking processes. The plant includes eight filling lines with a filling capacity of around 3,000 tonnes. Anchor Full Cream Milk Powder (FCMP), Ratthi FCMP, Anchor Instant FCMP and Anchor Shape Up Non Fat Milk powder are directly repacked, while value-added milk powders such as Anlene Non-fat, Anlene Full Cream, Anmum, Anchor 1+ and Anchor 3+ are blended and repacked in the plant.
The liquid plant manufactures a wide variety of fresh and cultured dairy products, including yoghurts (set, stirred, flavoured and real fruit), curd, UHT flavoured milks and fresh milks. Anchor Newdale, Ratthi, Anchor 1+, Anlene and Anchor Shape up also claim a share of the plant’s full production output. The UHT filling machine currently in use in the liquid plant can produce up to 8,000 packs per hour.
At Fonterra Brands Lanka, we are strongly committed to ensuring the health and safety of our people and others who may be affected by our operations at all times. Health and safety improvement is an integral part of everything we do and achieving effective health and safety solutions is considered essential to our long-term success. Fonterra Brands Lanka’s health and safety activities operate within a clearly defined Health and Safety Framework, which sets out the minimum standards of compliance for the company and its people to operate within.
Our commitment to the community
Fonterra Brands Lanka is committed to supporting the Sri Lanka community.
Raising nutritional standards
Our brands stand for the very best in nutrition and we are committed to helping improve local nutritional standards.
Free ANCHOR milk was provided to 65,000 school children in 300 schools in 2006 and 2007.
Our ANCHOR 1+ brand supported a series of health camps for over 3,000 Sri Lankan mothers who all received free consultation and medicines for their children.
Our ANCHOR Institute has provided a grant of US$25,000 to fund research into the prevalence of nutritional anaemia amongst Sri Lankan primary school children between the age of five and 10 years.
Our ANLENE brand provided more than 12,000 free bone scans to people across the country last year. These bone scans measured people’s bone density, helping to raise awareness of the risk of the crippling osteoporosis disease.
Supporting education
In line with Fonterra’s global commitment to education, Fonterra Brands Lanka has laid the foundation for a large investment project that will give two schools a much needed facelift. These schools are the Biyagama Central College and Biyagama Kanishta Vidyalaya.
Project plans include building a 750 square foot extra-curricular centre at the Biyagama Kanishta Vidyalaya, refurbishing the school’s main hall, renovating toilets and enhancing the appearance of the school entrance. Other features, such as new water drinking facilities and a boundary wall constructed behind the school, will provide comfort, convenience and safety for the students.
Supporting local dairy farmers
Apart from providing local farmers with a market for their milk, Fonterra Brands Lanka operates nine raw milk collection centres islandwide, collecting around 25,000 litres of milk per day. Milk production has become a viable side-income for many Sri Lankan farmers, with 3,950 farmers delivering milk to these centres and the average production per farmer varying from one to 10 litres per day.
Fonterra Brands Lanka has launched several education programmes and initiatives to improve the productivity of cows, such as pasture planting, provision of cattle feed and veterinary and medical facilities, credit-based drug purchase schemes and educational programmes for farmers.
Fonterra Brands Lanka also offers an interest-free loan to farmers to help them expand production. This loan scheme allows up to 3,000 farmers to adopt new technologies and invest in high-quality animal feed that will boost the quality and quantity of their yields.
Employment opportunities
Our Sri Lanka office offers a range of employment opportunities from distribution, marketing, manufacturing services to production capacities. The nature of work promises to be diverse and challenging to bring every individual’s best qualities to the fore.
Our employees are a testament to our working culture, even having gone on to succeed in their careers internationally by working in other regional markets such as Singapore and New Zealand.
To find out more about our current vacancies, visit our Working at Fonterra section.
