Maliban began as a tea kiosk in the early 1900s, going on to become Sri Lanka’s first mechanised biscuit manufacturer by 1954. Several decades and generations later, the company now runs four factories, employs over 1,250 people, and exports to 45 countries. In 2025, it entered a new phase: a partnership with Reliance Consumer Products to formally enter India, one of the world’s largest and most competitive markets.
Ravi Jayawardena, Group Chief Executive at Maliban Group, spoke to Echelon about the company’s plans and what it takes to run a century-old family business as it takes on its next stage of growth.
As Group CEO working alongside the founding family, how do you balance the company’s legacy with the changes that growth demands?
Legacy is not something we preserve by standing still; it is something we protect by making the right changes at the right time. Maliban has been built over generations on trust, quality, consistency, and a deep emotional connection with Sri Lankan families. Those values cannot be compromised, but the way we deliver them must keep evolving.
Working alongside the founding family gives us a strong sense of continuity and a clear understanding of what Maliban stands for. That becomes the filter through which we evaluate growth, whether it’s exports, digital transformation, or new partnerships. The question is always: does this strengthen the Maliban name in the long term?
How are leadership transitions handled at Maliban, and what priorities are upheld with each new generation?
Leadership transitions are handled with a strong sense of responsibility. This business carries not only commercial value, but family legacy, employee trust and national relevance, so every transition is approached with care and a long-term view. Each generation has strengthened governance, diversified the group and opened new pathways for growth, while quality, ethics, and the consumer remained constant.
The priority is never simply to pass on a position; it is to pass on stewardship, protecting what has been built while preparing the organisation for what comes next: professionalising the business, strengthening systems, investing in talent, and expanding internationally.
What is Maliban’s approach to dealing with economic upheavals?
Every difficult period teaches an organisation something about itself. We have been through COVID-19, the forex crisis, inflationary pressure, and supply chain disruptions. Each time, what helped was not one decision, but the resilience we had built as a team over the years.
Much was beyond our control: raw material availability, costs, imports, and consumer spending. Our role as leadership was to keep the organisation calm, focused, and informed. We made a conscious effort to speak to our people openly and give them clarity on the decisions we were taking. That transparency helped everyone move in one direction, understanding we were protecting not just the business, but livelihoods and consumer trust.
We were disciplined about efficiencies, pricing, and supply chains, but clear that quality and trust cannot be compromised. Consumers may forgive many things during a crisis, but they will not forgive a brand that lets them down.
As you expand your market with Reliance, how do you decide what’s “on-brand” for Maliban and what isn’t?
India is probably one of the most difficult markets in the world to win, so we have to be realistic. It is not a market where you can simply take what worked in Sri Lanka and expect the same result.
Sri Lanka is a heterogeneous market in terms of how we consume, how brands are built, and how distribution works. India, however, is vast, highly competitive, and extremely price-sensitive in many segments. You are speaking to different consumer groups, different regions, different income levels and different consumption habits. That is why adaptability becomes very important.
One of the biggest challenges is pricing. A large part of the Indian biscuit and confectionery market is driven by very sharp price points, especially the Rs5 and Rs10 segments. That changes the entire way you think about product, pack size, value delivery, margins, and distribution. You have to understand the consumer deeply and create a tailored solution.
For us, being on-brand means carrying the Maliban standard into that market without being rigid. The quality, trust, and consistency associated with Maliban must remain. But the product, pack, price, and proposition must be relevant to the Indian consumer.
That is why the Reliance partnership is important. It gives us not only access, but also insight and scale. We strongly believe this partnership can play a defining role in helping Maliban become a truly global brand. But we have to grow with discipline. Every opportunity must still answer one question: does this strengthen Maliban in the long term?
Twenty years from now, what would you want people to say Maliban did right during your time as CEO?
They should say Maliban became larger, stronger, and more global, but never lost the trust that built the company. In Sri Lanka, the priority is consolidation, protecting our leadership in biscuits every day through quality, availability, innovation, and relevance.
Globally, the ambition is bigger. For Maliban Biscuits, we want to become one of the top eight confectionery brands in the world. For Maliban Milk, the goal is a presence in at least three continents. For Zellers Chocolates, we want to build a strong local giant, then a regionally powerful chocolate brand within 7–8 years. For Little Lion, the opportunity is over 500 outlets across 10 countries.
Twenty years ahead, I would want people to say this was the period Maliban prepared for its next era, and that we consolidated where we were strong, expanded where we saw opportunity, and built the systems, people, and partnerships needed to compete internationally. We did it without compromising the quality, trust, or goodness that has always been at the heart of the brand.