Dilmah Founder Merrill J. Fernando passes away

Stalwart of the local tea industry and founder and former CEO of Asia’s largest and most global tea brand, Dilmah, Merrill J. Fernando, passed away yesterday.

Initially in 1954, Merrill J Fernando worked as a tea assistant with Arthur Frederick Jones and his sons Dennis and Alan Jones of AF Jones & Co Ltd.

He was considered as a person who led the tea industry in Sri Lanka to a new path by introducing single origin tea to compete with commodity tea. He was 93 at the time of his demise.