New Global Innovation and Applications Centre in Rhode Island.

In January, Finlays Colombo sold its temperature-controlled logistics business, Finlay Cold Storage (Pvt) Limited, to global cold chain service provider, Emergent Cold. The move is designed to enable Finlays to focus on its core, beverage-related businesses and is a part of Finlays’ ongoing, company-wide strategic transformation under the banner 'One Finlays'.

Broadly speaking, there are three aspects to the transformation: an increased investment in technology and capacity to produce high-quality teas and coffees; improvements in productivity across existing beverage businesses, and disposal of non-beverage-related assets. There has been good progress in all three areas over the past year.

In the US, the commissioning of a new brewed tea extract facility in Rhode Island is nearing completion and the expansion of 'cold-brew' coffee capacity in Texas is on track. In China, a new tea processing facility in Guizhou Province is scheduled for completion in April, and in Argentina and Kenya, productivity improvements are delivering positive results on Finlays' tea estates. Plans for similar improvements are well underway in Sri Lanka, where Finlays Colombo has also recently disposed of its 50% shareholding in Finlays Linehaul Express.