Our story began with the establishment of Danduwangala Plantations (Pvt) Ltd. - of which Raindrop Teas serves as the export arm - in 1982, on a one acre plantation. This was the brainchild of our founder, M. D. Ariyasena, who was the first local ‘tea small holder’ to venture into tea processing and exportation. Thus, we set off on a pioneering journey, parallel to that of James Taylor, the ‘Father of Ceylon Tea.’

 

Thereafter, the dynamic work ethic and eye for innovation of our founder and the able support of his family members combined in a rapid expansion drive that added plantations and processing plants. Quality was a key focus from the onset and our diligence was rewarded when our Kithulhenawatta plantation won the Presidential Award for the Best Medium Tea Estate in the Sabaragamuwa Province shortly after commencing operations..

 

 

 

With the timely opening of the Danduwangala Watta Tea Factory in 1999 -- then only capable of processing 6,000 kg of green leaves per day -- we gained tea processing capacity. Our committed, intense efforts to enhance our facilities has driven processing capacity at this plant to 30,000 kg of green leaves per day.

 

We continued to demonstrate our inventiveness pioneering the use of automation in the production of Orthodox teas in the country through our Parakaduwa factory, our largest manufacturing unit with a daily processing capacity of over 40,000 kg of green leaves. The opening of this facility strengthened our manufacturing capacity which was further enhanced with the opening of subsequent manufacturing plants.

 

The state-of-the-art Danduwangala CTC Factory -- for which we received support of the government -- with a daily processing capacity of 18,000 kg of green leaves followed suit, advancing the quality and the range of our product portfolio. The Winwood factory was acquired thereafter. This manufacturing unit with a daily processing capacity of 25,000 kg of green leaves, won us an award for the ‘Speciality Tea of the Year’ from the Sri Lanka Tea Board demonstrating another strength of ours - our excellence and expertise in the production of speciality teas. We complemented these developments by adding a modern packaging plant.

 

Our plantations were not forgotten in our drive to enhance our manufacturing facilities and capacity. The strong demand for green leaves produced at our plantations -- which enabled us to set many records including all time records and records for top prices at the world famous Colombo Tea Auction -- reflects our success in sustaining excellent quality standards.