The Beginning of Plantation Engineering Excellence
John Brown, an engineer from Aberdeen, arrived in Sri Lanka, where he gained considerable experience in tea and coffee plantations. In 1876, he founded the Colombo Commercial Company [CCC], established on 13 acres in Slave Island Colombo Ceylon. In the early years of the company's development, the Slave Island mills processed coffee, tea and artificial fertilizers. With his engineering background, John Brown soon proved himself a pioneer in the design and manufacture of machinery for the plantation industry.
1876
1998
The story of mastery
Over its 145-year history, the Colombo Commercial Company has been a major player in tea and plantation engineering, industrial machinery design, plant engineering and management.With its wealth of knowledge in a wide range of activities, it was the leading company in the Sri Lankan tea industry, which led to its involvement in the creation and implementation of agricultural and manufacturing processes for tea and other types of plantations in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Pacific Rim.
Global Legacy, Strategic Rebirth
The company has worked on government projects in various parts of the world, including food and agricultural development programs for international organizations such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
In response to the commercial failure that followed nationalization, Mr Clive. de Silva through his company purchased the majority shares of the company to privatize CCC(E) in 1998.
Following CCC(E)'s successful privatization in his favor, he reorganized and restructured the company's entire business, refocusing it on the national territory.
Expansion and Integration
As part of the strategy to redevelop CCC(E)'s activities, Mr. De SILVA created a sister company, Colombo Commercial Company International Limited, in July 2014. In 2015, he began working closely with Mr. DUBUISSON, whom he appointed to the Board of Directors of CCC(E) and CCCI. Following the Covid 19 crisis, they began lengthy negotiations in 2021, to redevelop specific activities that were the core business of Colombo Commercial Company with a view to integrating specifics of CCCI under the Valamka SAS umbrella. In late 2022, Valamka signed an agreement to acquire a 20% stake in Colombo Commercial Company International Limited in the beginning of 2023. In line with the agreements reached at the beginning of 2023, Valamka launched a tea production and packaging subsidiary in France titled COLOMBO COMMERCIAL COMPANY INTERNATIONAL (EUROPE) SAS.
This move into France is in line with Valamka's strategy of marketing premium and luxury products the French way.
The meeting of two organizations sharing common passions. Their generational differences would have led one to believe that nothing could bring them together, but this was without counting on their shared passion for history and business challenges.
Restoring an international dimension to the activities of this company, which has helped write the history of Tea Plantation engineering worldwide since 1876, was a wish and a vision shared passion.