Relaunch of Royal Cashews

The event has a true magical feeling about it in line with its new positioning of “Moments Made Magical” with short presentations followed by cocktails.

Speaking at the event, Founder and Managing Director, Dr. Wathugala said, “Coming from simple beginnings, I wanted to relieve my parents and be financially independent. I always thought the best way to give back to my motherland for the free education provided would be to bring foreign currency into the land. Upon my own research I found that Sri Lanka’s main exports after textile is tea followed by other crown jewels such as spices, coconut and cashews. I also stumbled upon a very interesting fact that all but cashew had due global recognition. As I hail from Kirindiwita, an area where cashew processing is quite a well-known home industry, my natural inclination was towards cashew. However, I discovered that the industry was at a primitive stage both in processing as well as packaging. Hence I saw the potential in this industry and have leveraged it to the fullest, helping thousands of people along the way, and look forward to continuing to do so in the future.”

Chief Guest, Suren Amarasekera also noted the remarkable understanding that Royal Cashews possesses about its customers and the market. Quoting an Indian proverb, “We can’t change the direction of the wind, but we can adjust the sails.”, he underscored the ingenuity of Dr. Wathugala and the Royal Cashew’s team in repositioning the country’s finest cashews as something to be enjoyed with life’s magical moments.

Speaking at the relaunch ceremony, Mr Amarasekera said, “When many other businesses were dealing the effects of the pandemic, Royal Cashews embarked on this transformation, a journey that saw Royal Cashews morph into a business aimed at re-setting long-term benchmarks, not by being market driven, but by driving the market. Dr Ruwan ably led this by looking in-depth at the value-chain, on a link-by-link basis to offer the best consumer experience through sustainable value creation. The engagement of best-in-class experts has been instrumental, to ensure that Royal Cashews harnessed the vast knowledge base both within the company, as well as, best practices from around the world.”

Royal Cashews was founded in 1999 by Dr Ruwan Wathugala, as a passion project. At the time, he was serving as a medical doctor, but also had a burning desire to contribute towards Sri Lanka’s economy. This inspired him to become a value-added agri-entrepreneur, with a focus on health and safety particularly with regard to promoting Sri Lankan Cashew, which is known worldwide for its unique milky flavour that distinguishes it from other varieties of cashew.

Today, Royal Cashews has grown to operate the largest Cashew Processing Unit in Sri Lanka, with a fully automated end-to-end integrated processing system. The Company also maintains a strategically located network of branches across Sri Lanka. Under Dr Wathugala’s exceptional leadership, Royal Cashew also became the first cashew company in Sri Lanka to be certified as ISO 22000 and still remains the first and only such company to have obtained ISO 14001, HACCP and GMP certification.

Driven by Dr Wathugala’s passion, Royal Cashew has won the NCE Gold Award for Fresh and Processed Food Exports for 3 years consecutively from 2019-2021, along with SLIP awards such as Winner of Best Packaging 2007, Best Eco-Friendly Packaging – Presidential Award in 2011, Best Display Packaging in 2020 and Best Product with Local Raw Material in 2007. In his own personal capacity, Dr Wathugala has also received the coveted “Best Entrepreneur of the Year” award along with 4 Gold Awards at Sri Lankan Entrepreneur Of The Year Award Ceremony 2019.