Planter's success allows him to venture on to bigger things

SINCE it is relatively young compared to more famous tea brands that have been around for over a hundred years, not many are aware of how the tea company Dilmah changed the face of the tea industry worldwide.

As a young man working with the tea growers of Sri Lanka in the 1950s, Merrill J. Fernando, the founder of Dilmah , bore witness to the commoditisation of tea by tea traders from Europe.