Empowering Women in Sri Lanka

We’ve long identified women empowerment as one of the focus areas for English Tea Shop. It is vital for us as a business and for the industry at large to continue working towards gender equality and in enabling women to thrive in a business landscape.

As part of driving this agenda forward, we make sure to shine spotlight on the work of our female employees and female farmers that have played an integral part in the success of our business. We believe that growth can be achieved because of sustainability, not despite of it, and in doing so we understand how important it is to strengthen female entrepreneurship to create sustainable businesses.

At English Tea Shop we have over 180 female employees represented across all levels of the company. Most recently we’ve appointed a new female Working Director to our Sri Lankan manufacturing facility. On top of this, our laser eye focus on small-farm based organic produce has enabled female famers to make a living on their own.

Priyanthi is a prime example of what is possible with the encouragement and backing from the wider industry. Priyanthi has grown her business from farming in her backyard to developing her own successful lemongrass plantation. Today, she employs 12 people and her income has grown by 80% from 2016 to 2017.

Following the successes of our current initiatives, we are continuing to put resources and investment behind our initiatives which further empower our female employees and farmers. Watch this space for more to come!