1988 headquarters peliyagoda sri lanka key people merrill j fernando malik j. fernando dilhan c. fernando himendra ranaweera roshan tissaaratchy minette perera products ceylon tea flavoured tea green tea speciality tea herbal infusions masala chai boutique tea the t series designer gourmet tea www.teatimerocks.com watte single estate tea www.watteseries.com white tea http white.dilmah.com real iced tea website http www.dilmahtea.com dilmah is a brand of ceylon tea . the company was founded in 1974 by merrill j fernando . the name dilmah was chosen by combining the first names of fernando s sons dilhan and malik . it is available in over 100 countries including estonia the united kingdom turkey lithuania pakistan poland russia hungary canada chile south africa australia indonesia japan and new zealand . contents 1 dilmah australia 1.1 25 year anniversary 2 references 3 external links dilmah australia edit in 1985 merril fernando convinced the australian supermarket retailer coles to stock his brand of tea dilmah . he spoke to a coles buyer about stocking his tea and eventually won him over . in 1988 a melbourne coles store started stocking dilmah on its shelves . it eventually spread to 35 other coles stores in victoria and then woolworths started selling the product as well . dilmah later exported the tea to new zealand where it s currently the top selling brand and also to europe and north america . when the tea brand launched in australia in 1988 an advertisement was created and aired on national television . today australia makes up 10 percent of dilmah s global annual retail sales . 1 25 year anniversary edit june 2013 marked 25 years of the dilmah tea brand in australia . as part of the celebration dilmah launched tea caps that are filled with hand picked tea leaves from specific regions in sri lanka that are designed to fit in nespresso coffee machines . these tea caps were released in selected supermarkets around the country . the company also released two new advertisements to promote the tea caps one which promoted the earl gray tea caps and another that promoted the english breakfast tea caps . the advertisements feature peter kuruvita an australian chef and restaurateur of sri lankan heritage as the australian ambassador for the brand . the advertisements began airing on july 1 2013 . 2 3 references edit dilmah founder draws on 25 years of tea business . brw . retrieved 8 july 2013 . dilmah targets younger market . b & t. retrieved 8 july 2013 . dilmah to launch tea cap in australia . afn thought for food . retrieved 8 july 2013 . external links edit mjf charitable foundation a sri lankan underdog battles global tea giants dilmah reference in the new york times january 2010 official dilmah australia site official international dilmah site this tea related article is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expanding it . v t e retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title dilmah & oldid 742506879 categories tea brandssri lankan teasri lankan brandstea companiestea stubshidden categories all stub articles navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages bahasa indonesiasuomi edit links this page was last modified on 4 october 2016 at 03 31 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view