Our Story

1945

A young lad called Vidanagamage, “John Appuhamy,” migrated from his village in the South to the Northern Province. In 1942, he established his business as “Kamala Bakery” in the town of Jaffna. He commenced manufacturing and supplying confectionary products such as biscuits, cakes, and bread to consumers in the northern peninsula. Before soon, products manufactured under the brand name Kamala Biscuits became a very popular household consumer product name. At the inception, biscuits were manufactured using a firewood hearth in Jaffna with the recipes and skills obtained from South India.

1959

In 1959, the government under S.W.R.D. Bandaranayaka provided alternative land in Anuradhapura. Thus, the manufacturing unit was established at the current location of the Industrial Estate. With this move, the production and sales were expanded by operating simultaneously from both sites in Jaffna and Anuradhapura.

1978

With the demise of the founder Chairman, Mr. Vidanagamage Johnappuhamy, on the 15th of December 1978, the business did not stop.

1983

His family continued the business, and in 1983, due to the civic disturbance in the North, the entire business was moved to Anuradhapura.

1983

Between 1983 and 1992, the saga of Kamala Biscuits was re-launched as Cherish Biscuits.

1992

Accordingly, in 1992, the company installed its first automated biscuit lines at the Anuradhapura site and expanded the manufacturing base of Biscuits.

1995

With successful market penetration in 1995, the company installed the first European Origin Wafer manufacturing plant.

1995 - 2015

In 1999, the company further enhanced its manufacturing capacity of biscuits in 2015 by installing another two European-origin biscuits manufacturing lines at the Anuradhapura Plant. Presently the state of art biscuit manufacturing plant situated at Anuradhapura in the North Central province, 206 KM away from the business hub of Colombo, epitomizes the founder Chairman’s vision in line with the current National Vision of North–South Dialogue through harmony created through entrepreneurship. Cherish brand biscuits are manufactured to international standards within ISO and HACCP quality standard environment while employing rural youth in the North and North-central Provinces and act as an establishment that provides the highest GDP contribution to the North central province of Sri Lanka. The company also has established an island wide distribution network to cater the biscuits to its consumers, managed by a well-established Field Sales Team.