Vol 47, No 2 Autumn/Winter 2011 - Finlays

News
Leaf Tea and Tea Extracts
Update
Richard Darlington MD
After a quiet start to the year
on the Leaf Tea side I am
pleased to be able to report
that business has picked up
and we are heading towards
a good end to the year.
Trading conditions in the increasingly
important Middle East region continue
to be difficult but, thanks to the hard
work put in by our traders in the
offices that serve these countries, we
have managed to achieve a satisfactory
level of sales. Elsewhere the leaf tea
businesses have done well. In the US,
sales of tea from South America have
surpassed our expectations and
promising initiatives are in place
that are expected to result in further
progress next year. It is also pleasing
to report that our office in Blantyre,
Malawi, under Simon O’Neill, has had
an exceptionally good year, picking up
a number of new clients both in the
region and elsewhere. Our Hanoi office
did well in expanding its list of
suppliers and, as a result, was able to
exceed expectations in terms of total
kilos exported from Vietnam. The
businesses in the UK have performed
well this year. The London sales office,
amongst other initiatives, was able to
help James Finlay Kenya find new
homes for its tea. On the decaffeinated
tea side, Finlay Hull and our Indian
partners AVT have, between them,
processed greater volumes of tea than
we had envisaged at the start of the
year and also continued to widen the
range of teas available to our clients.
Turning to our Tea Extracts business,
2011 was the first full year when
we operated with only one factory,
Saosa, the older Mara Mara facility
having been closed at the end of 2010.
It would be fair to say that the move
to a single factory has not been
seamless. Some issues with the initial
commissioning of a second line,
coupled with equipment and grid
power supply failures, resulted in
Saosa struggling to keep up with
orders for much of the year. All our
staff, from the people in the factory
itself to those in our sales offices, are
working tirelessly to ensure that our
very patient customers are supplied
with product in as timely a way as
possible. I hope that, by the time this
edition goes to print, we will have
caught up on the backlog of orders
and can start to focus our efforts on
making the most of what is, without
question, a world class and unique
facility. Elsewhere in the extracts
division, business has been brisk
with record quantities of powder
being made for us for by our Chilean
partners, Tresmontes Lucchetti.
The relationship we have with our
China partner, Damin Foodstuffs,
has strengthened in 2011 and we
will now start seeing real benefits
from this association.
News
Long Service Award
Steve Robinson, Factory Manager
of Finlay Hull, was presented
with his 25-year Long Service Award
at the Ramada Jarvis Hotel in Hull
on 7 September. Richard thanked
Steve for his work at Finlays in
promoting decaffeinated tea over
the past 25 years.
Twenty-five years down the line, Steve
Robinson (l) receives his long service award
from Richard Darlington
Appointments
Ross McDonald
Ross McDonald has recently
been recruited to the
London office. He joins us
as a trainee tea trader and
taster. Ross is 23 and is a
graduate of Oxford
University where he read classics.
Cingee Ip
Cingee Ip has been
appointed as Assistant
Accountant in London.
Cingee, who joined us in
June, came to Finlays from
Crossley & Davis, an
accounting firm in Lytham St. Annes.
Adebayo Olaiwon
Adebayo Olaiwon (right) has joined Finlay
Extracts in London as a Technical Specialist
for Beverage Applications. ‘Ade’ previously
worked with Diageo in the successful
product development of both alcoholic and
non-alcoholic beverages for many emerging
markets. He will support Finlays customers
in developing recipes for different types of
drinks based on our own tea extracts,
including RTD Iced Tea beverages, Milk Tea
beverages (either RTD or powdered form)
and Masala Chai type products. All of this
will be done from the new lab in Swire
House which is now capable of producing a
widely diverse range of products.
John O’Hanlon
John O’Hanlon joined
Finlays Extracts in October,
as Head of Engineering for
the Saosa Factory in Kenya.
John will assist the
management on a range of
engineering issues and support the factory’s
continuing focus on production quality and
up-time. John brings seasoned engineering
management experience, gained in a number
of international food related businesses.
Prior to joining Finlay’s, he held senior
manufacturing and engineering positions in,
amongst others, Leaf International, Cargill,
Nabisco and United Biscuits.
James Calberson
James Calberson joins
Finlays in the US as Vice
President of Technical
Development. James brings
many years’ experience in
beverage R&D and product
development, most recently with Kerry
Ingredients as Director of R&D, Beverages.
He also has a background in tea, having
worked for Lipton and Tetley in the US.
38 Autumn/Winter ’11