NEWS

I am so honored to be nominated and win a total of 11 awards and to have my work recognized in this way by Asia awards powered by RULA Awards. Many years have gone into rising to this level and it means so much to me that the work that I am so passionate about also resonates with others. 

I am overwhelmed with gratitude and blessed to have been selected to receive and achieve

• Asia’s Outstanding Leader Award

• Asia’s Inspiration Leader Award

• Asia’s Business Maker Award

• Asia’s Chairman Awards

• Asia’s Best Entrepreneur Award

• Asia’s Innovative Thinker Award

• Asia’s Premium Chocolate Maker Award

• Asia’s Outstanding Cocoa Marketer Award

• Asia’s, Super Brand Marketing Company Award

• Asia’s Quality Multi Brand Marketing Company Award

• Asia’s Fame Award for Chocolate Industry Award

This accomplishment is not something that I did alone, and there are many others who deserve to share in this award. I would like to thank my wife, Dimuthu Peiris who has been the pillar to my success along with my entire team who have been extraordinary, diligent and committed to making our dreams a reality. 

I recollect migrating to Dubai at three and returning to Sri Lanka almost ten years later. Having completed my GCE London O-Levels, I attended a private institute to pursue my higher education and moved to New York, USA, where I graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and Business Administration. 

My hands-on experience in trading began when I took over Collins Impex (Pvt.) Ltd, which is my father-in-law’s family trading company. Whilst running that for a year, I was able to grow the sales volume substantially and in turn increase profitability. Moreover, taking into account my wife’s rare knowledge as a chocolatier, it was during this time our collective innovative chocolate factory idea unfolded.

From McDonald’s and Burger King to Biscuit Manufacturers, Cargills and Elephant House Ice Cream to five star properties such as Cinnamon Grand and Shangri-La Hotels, almost 90% of the food industry is known to use the chocolate from Anods Cocoa in their products, including home bakers. Anods Cocoa now successfully exports to over 16 countries worldwide and has also gotten into the retail business. Anods Cocoa now acts as a total solutions provider for the cooking industry. In order to sustain the business and grow the business, I had to expand the products that we were selling whilst bringing to life Asriel Marketing in the year 2015. The progression was exponential which entailed merchandising products such as oils & fats, instant flavours from the UK, the finest cocoa powder from Ghana and fresh pasteurized dairy products from Australia and New Zealand. Deriving from the bare knowledge of doing even a 100,000 LKR (500 USD) in revenue per month, Asriel Marketing’s revenue has grown to over 2B LKR (9.9M USD) annually. 

As Chairman of Asriel Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, I believed in playing a substantial role in contributing to the success of the food industry in Sri Lanka by taking the initiative to turn dreams into a reality. I felt that my personality combined with my passion for success helped me reach new heights and always stayed ahead in business.

I am proud to state the exceptional services Asriel Holdings provides alongside our products, such as R&D teams for troubleshooting, our own chefs for product application and our turnkey distribution network consisting of unique solutions in the trading market that make for a more significant advantage. Being a prominent leader in the segment and a trendsetter in the Sri Lankan food ingredient business, Asriel Marketing continues to excel greatly in areas such as importing, distribution, manufacturing, storage and retailing.

With continuous improvement and by creating a prosperous operation at Asriel Marketing that constitutes access to over three hundred products and consistently catering to over a thousand customers per month, our  next stop was getting into the restaurant sector, a venture that started from  my go-to childhood eating spot, “Chariot”. The nostalgic memories of me dining there often after my cricket matches gave rise to the opportunity of taking over the top QSR brand of the 1980’s that was preferred and well-established and eventually led to me taking it over in the year 2019 under Asriel Food Services (Pvt) Ltd.  

The restaurant, however, was only operational from the year 2020. Even though we were hit by the four-wave pandemic of Covid-19, we continued to gain momentum with that very project, one that’s near and dear to my heart. One of Sri Lanka’s biggest superstars, Angelo Matthews was brought on as Chariot’s Brand Ambassador to further drive in that nostalgic feeling and helped us showcase our variety of products and gain valuable exposure to drive the business forward. Whilst operating from 2 outlets currently, Chariot has been known to withhold a rich heritage since the onset and has a stable platform in order to continue its growth. 

As the organization began to grow, we set up Asriel Dairies (Pvt) Ltd and partnered up in the year 2020 with Fonterra who is the biggest dairy company in Sri Lanka to be the main distributor for the food services segment Anchor brand in the Country.

My vision for the future of my organization includes successful expansions. Our sister companies such as Asriel Security Services (Pvt) Ltd will be launched in 2022 where it will provide security personnel’s, VIP guardian service, security systems and cash in transit services. Similarly, we are launching Store2Door (Pvt) Ltd in the year 2022 which is an online platform for selling artisan food products to consumers at affordable prices. 

With the purchasing habits having gravitated from in-store to online, there is great potential to grow this brand and make it the one stop shop for all. From 2015 to 2021, I was able to expand from food manufacturing to distribution to storage to restaurants and to retailing in 5 different segments in 6 years. I have ongoing plans to expand Chariot by opening several branches and creating sub-brands. Concurrently, I am looking forward to expanding my manufacturing process alongside the opening of an online store. As I branch out into multiple countries, it is a tremendous journey that I have been on thus far having started with just two employees to now holding over 250 and being the number one total solutions provider in the market. 

Once again, I would like to thank Asia awards for providing me with this unimaginable recognition, the ones dear and close to me along with my strong core team where we will continue to venture into new territories and continue our success of Asriel Holdings (Pvt) Ltd.