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Coca-Cola Sri Lanka launches Schweppes

Coca-Cola Sri Lanka recently added a new range of beverages to its portfolio with the launch of the Schweppes range.

The Schweppes brand is one of the oldest known brands of carbonated soft drinks and dates beyond the beginning of Coca-Cola’s own illustrious history. Today the brand is known for its premium range of soda waters and tonic.

Schweppes as a brand has been known as a premium adult beverage brand throughout the world. Schweppes currently

 enjoys being the leading carbonated brand in Europe and Australia while also being the leading mixer brand in the United States as well.

Originally begun with tonic water Schweppes now offers a range of flavours for the adult palette, and has positioned itself as the ideal mixer for cocktails.

The brand has had a rather weak presence in Sri Lanka in the past; however with the distribution and marketing being taken over by Coca-Cola Sri Lanka the brand will no doubt enjoy a stronger presence in the local market. Each product will also come with the Coca-Cola label as an added seal of authenticity.

The brand will be positioned as a premium mixer locally and target the adult market, as opposed to most of Coca-Cola Sri Lanka’s other brands, which are targeted to the more youthful target markets.

The brand will make its entry into the local market through the Schweppes range of Tonic water, Soda water and Ginger Ale, which will all be available in 330 ml cans at all leading supermarkets and top end clubs and bars predominantly in the western province and selected towns islandwide.

Furthermore, Schweppes soda water will also be available in 500ml PET and 1.5-liter PET bottles. While the cans will be imported from Singapore the existing PET bottling line will absorb the manufacturing of PET bottles for the Schweppes range as well.

Speaking on this brand expansion further Dusty Alahakoon, Marketing Manager for Coca-Cola Sri Lanka commented, “Schweppes has been a flagship brand for the Coca-Cola Company worldwide, and we are very excited with the launch of the brand in the local market. This will also enhance the adult sector of the sparkling beverage industry, offering the consumers more taste and brand options.”

From the birth of the Schweppes brand in 1783, the brand has grown internationally to produce a range of over fifty flavours throughout the world. Similar to Coca-Cola, Schweppes has also created history with some of its marketing campaigns, such as the 1950s “Schweppeshire” campaign and the 1960s “Schhh...You- Know-Who” campaigns. Its renewed entry into the Sri Lankan beverage market promises to create new bubbles in the local sparkling beverage industry.

NDB Bank and Eagle sign eZ Pay Agreement

Eagle Insurance and NDB Bank signed the eZ Pay partnership agreement in a revolutionary service that allows Eagle insurance policyholders to pay their premiums via their mobile phones.In Eagle’s constant endeavour to add value to policyholders and to make their lives more convenient, Eagle joined with NDB Bank on their eZ Pay facility to provide a convenient, secure and reliable payment option to its customers.

Policyholders now have the advantage of paying their premiums through their mobile phones in the comfort of their homes or offices, or simply while they are on-the-go.

“We constantly strive to improve ourselves and serve our customers even better.” Managing Director Deepal Sooriyaarachchi, said. “We endeavour to constantly innovate and improve our service standards and product offerings.’ We are glad to sign-up with NDB Bank in this revolutionary innovation’. he added.

“We also provide our policyholders with an array of premium payment methods including the options to make payments, online, via ATM’s, through salary, bank and credit card standing orders and also through tele-banking facilities.” he continued.

“On rare occasions the power of technology combines with economic forces to transform society” said Nihal Welikala Chief Executive of NDB Bank.

“The impact of the mobile phone on the banking industry has the potential over time, to bring about fundamental change, to transform the way we do business, and with whom. eZ Pay will definitely add value to Eagle’s policyholders and make their lives easier.

This is South Asia’s first Mcommerce (mobile commerce) initiative between NDB Bank and Dialog Telekom, a revolutionary service that allows customers to purchase goods, pay bills, transfer money and perform banking transactions via their mobile phones”.

Consumers can avail themselves of eZ Pay facilities by obtaining an eZ Pay enabled SIM card from Dialog Telekom. eZ Pay is available to Post-paid as well as Pre-paid Dialog subscribers.

Reggie Candappa competition entries till Nov. 12

Ganga Pradeepa

The Reggie Candappa Craft Awards are back to celebrate and recognise the genius of craft in creativity. This marks four years of the foundation’s awards ceremony organised by the Reggie Candappa Foundation for the Arts. The competition is for all forms of print and television mediums. It is open to all advertising and communication companies, production houses, freelancers and individuals, who meet the entry criteria.

The Awards were conceptualised by his family on the first anniversary of his passing and have been showcasing the crafting talent and artistic ability of the advertising industry in Sri Lanka since 2004.

The awards seek to reward those who seek perfection in their craft; more or less a reflection of the stoic perfectionist that Reggie Candappa himself was. While other shows look for creativity in general or effectiveness or both, the Reggie’s have created categories never judged in Sri Lanka before.

Daughter of late Deshabandu Reggie Candappa and the Managing Director/Chairperson of Grant McCann Erickson Mrs. Neela Marikkar said that the RC awards is a special tribute to a great man who still lives on in their hearts”.

“The judging of entries will be done by a senior panel of Creative judges of Sri Lanka.

The winner will receive a trophy, while the first runner-up and second runner-up will receive certificates. The judges reserve the right to award a special Merit Award for any entry, which deserves to receive same”, she added.

Entries, which close on the 12th of November, are now open to all agencies, production houses, individuals and freelancers involved in advertising and allied fields to present and be recognized and rewarded for their most skillfully crafted advertising art forms.

The Line print ads created and published in the past year - November 1, 2006 to October 31, - in all three national languages, within the categories of typography, logo usage, use of illustration, photography, copywriting and art direction. Entries will be judged by 15 local specialists in their relevant craft, drawn from the ad industry in Sri Lanka.

The Creative Awards will encompass a television category with awards being presented for Concept and Art Direction, Cinematography and Direction.

CBL wins seven awards at SLIM

Ceylon Biscuits Ltd (CBL) won seven awards at the SLIM Brand Excellence Awards 2007 held Thursday night at the Colombo Hilton.

CBL’s Chocolate Brand Ritzbury received the Gold award for the Innovative Brand of the year. Munchee Super Cream Cracker won Silver awards in both local Brand of the year and Product Brand of the year categories.

In addition Munchee won a Silver award for the International Brand of the year and a Bronze in the product Brand of the year category. The Silver award in the category of the best new entrant of the year was presented to Ritzbury POPIT. CBL’s Cake Brand also won a Silver Award under the Innovative Brand of the year category.

Brand Manager of Ritzbury Nilupul De Silva Received the Brand Champion Award for the innovative Brand of the year category.

CBL as a company has been participating in the SLIM Brand awards from its inception and CBL’s Flagship Brand Munchee has won Product Brand Of the year award for three consecutive years and Brand of the year for two years in a row.

Suntel partners FCCISL to reward Sri Lankan entrepreneurs

Suntel Ltd, signed an MoU with the Federation of Chambers and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL), to become the Chambers’ strategic partner for its annual event ‘Entrepreneur of the year 2006’ awards programme for the third consecutive year.

The flagship event of the FCCISL which is held for the 12th consecutive year is to reward and recognize the spirit of enterprise and leadership among Sri Lankan entrepreneurs.

The exchanging of agreement was made between and by Director Marketing and Sales of Suntel, Hasitha Abeywardena and President of the FCCISL, Nawas Rajabdeen.

The FCCISL together with Suntel plans to hold the annual awards ceremony on the November 30th at the BMICH to honor entrepreneurs for their outstanding achievements at both provincial and national levels.

The Finance - Ceylinco Fastcash ‘one-stop shop’

The Finance company PLC recently inaugurated its Ceylinco Fastcash office at Colombo 4, in a modern and spacious new location.

The office is a “one-stop shop” service exclusively catering to all Ceylinco Fastcash customers. The new office layout is designed to deliver and assures its customers undivided attention and offers a complete service.

Customers of Ceylinco Fastcash can enjoy the benefits of free call conferencing, video conferencing and internet services at this new location which is situated in Colombo 04. Today all branches of The Finance Company are equipped to handle the Ceylinco Fastcash money remittance system.

Several housing and personal loans were granted to beneficiaries of Sri Lankan expatriates at the inauguration.

Ceylinco Fastcash also launched a gift scheme to mark the special occasion where customers could make arrangements to send gifts to their loved ones whilst being overseas through the Ceylinco Fastcash money remittance system.

The chief guest was Chairman-Ceylinco Consolidated Deshamanya Dr. Lalith Kotelawala.

ICICI Bank partners ACCA

ICICI Bank, India’s second largest bank, came forward to sponsor the ACCA’s [Association of Chartered Certified Accountants] graduation ceremony that was held recently.

“The ACCA has 296,000 students and 115,000 members in 170 countries and is a leading global financial institution it is only fitting that ICICI Bank be associated with such an organization” said Senior Vice President and Head Retail Liabilities ICICI Bank, Sachin Sikka.

At this year’s graduation ceremony, ICICI Bank sponsored the Individual Sri Lanka Paper PrizeWinners for December 2006 and June 2007.

Sikka reiterated ICICI Bank’s commitment to supporting new entrants to the industry and said that as a socially responsible organization they were committed to supporting and promoting the minds of the future.

“ICICI Bank has always prided itself on its professional approach to banking, whilst endeavouring to hire the best corporate minds in the industry and we are indeed leased to be associated with the ACCA which plays such a prominent role in today’s corporate world’.

Ready mix cement seminar held

A one-day seminar was held for the CEO’s and Senior Managers of Read mix Cement Business on strategic management models used by Ready- mix Business in other countries.

The objective of this seminar was to educate their clients and to bring in new technology like use of different admixers other substitutes to reduce heat generations in concrete method of production of high slump or flow concretes and go into the production of high grade concrete.

Engineer South Asian region Spenser Sephton made a presentation at the event.

He said that they have plans to conduct courses in conjunction with ICTAD and the University of Moratuwa to upgrade the skills of the technical personnel who are employed, or those who are willing to join this industry.

“This seminar is somewhat different to what we have been doing previously. This time, we like to study more about our own industry by sharing and learning more from our colleagues who operate such plants at advanced levels, and the strategies adopted to enhance the market for the readymix industry in the South-East region”, he said.

Therefore we have invited Holcim (Pvt) Limited, supply of cement, and readymix concrete, to conduct this presentation for us to learn more from them through their many years of experience in this field.

“All these years, our association has been engaged in organizing technical presentations, to educate our clients and to bring in new technology, like use of different admixers, other substitutes to reduce heat generations in concrete, method of production of high slump or flow concretes and to go into the production of high grade concrete.

We also arranged at grass roots level, technical staff training programs to educate our lower grade staff for the production of quality concrete.”

Sunsilk Hadakari to visit outskirts

Sunsilk together with the Professional Hair Dressers and Beauticians Association in Sri Lanka (PHABA), have announced the launch of ‘Sunsilk Hadakari”- a series of exciting regional workshops providing a hundred talented beauticians and hairdressers the opportunity of shining at Sunsilk Style International 2008.

Sunsilk Hadakari w kicked off in Negombo - the first of ten regional workshops to be held fortnightly over the next five months. The workshops will also travel to Galle, Balangoda, Badulla, Kuliyapitiya, Dehiathakandiya, Polonnaruwa, Kandy, Kalutara and Maharagama.

Ten talented hair care professionals will be selected at each workshop and the one hundred professionals who thus qualify will then proceed to participate for Sunsilk Style International 2008.

The ten winners from each region will be selected out of a pool of forty regional participants. Furthermore, the ten most outstanding models will also be selected from each region and both the model and professional will be awarded with trophies and certificates.

One model out of the ten finalists will then be adjudged the Sunsilk Hadakari for that region - the judging will be based on the transformation achieved by the hair care professional. The winning models will train alongside the professionals in order to give them an opportunity to be on the catwalk at the grand finale in January 2008.

Brand Manager for Sunsilk Anjali De Silva said, “The hair and beauty care industry in Sri Lanka has a huge pool of talent to draw from - the objective of Sunsilk Hadakari is to identify and nurture this talent in order to raise the profile of the industry.

At the same time, participating in this competition will enable aspiring hair care professionals to enhance their skills, learn modern methods and become better entrepreneurs - thereby becoming better geared to begin and sustain their own enterprises.

Sunsilk is proud to be associated with the dreams and aspirations of its consumers and partners - this series of workshops and the mobile salon will be useful not only for aspiring hair care professionals but also for the Sunsilk consumer and we invite everyone to be part of this experience.”

As part of the workshops, a mobile salon will be visiting prime locations over 60 days and consumers can come aboard and experience the professional haircare on offer by Sunsilk with live demonstrations of cutting, styling, washing and blow drying. Consumers will also have the opportunity of having their hair examined while receiving relevant hair care advice.