CEO’s Review
The Country is in state of comparative volatility The year-under-review has been one that saw political, economic and social upheaval with the larger body of the citizenry left in a state of comparative confusion. There was an increasing sense of disconnect among them as well as real and imagined exposure to various societal vulnerabilities resulting in both economic and social risk aversion. This was compounded by reciprocally volatile global socioeconomics. Within that climate of doubt, the vulnerability of Sri Lanka’s economy to these types of impact parameters became increasingly visible during the year-under-review with real economic growth being 3.2% compared to 3.4% during the previous year which was a drop of 5.9% YoY. Service
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Raigam Wayamba Salterns PLC ANNUAL REPORT 2018 - 2019
Despite the fact that lower standard or inferior quality products have always been a threat, the strategic brand promotional exercises of the company have resulted in an increasingly larger percentage of the citizens of Sri Lanka establishing within their minds the fact that “Isi was salt and salt was Isi”.
sector growth of 4.7% was the chief contributor to this growth while it was heartening to see that the agriculture sector recovered with a growth of 4.8% YoY. This is particularly important to FMCGs where the recovery of the sector that has largest grassroots percentage of livelihoods increases their purchase power and implicitly drives sales.
A great harvest of salt In the salt sector, production remained comparable to the previous year and resulted in an increase in stocks at the salterns dotting the country leading to a shrinking of margins. Despite the fact that lower standard or inferior quality products have always been a threat, the strategic brand promotional exercises of the company have resulted in an