George Steuart Consumer is the Group’s most recent sectoral venture, having been formed in late 2021 integrating existing entities Seri Naturals and GS Laboratories, to sell the gamut of FMCG products under the George Steuart umbrella nationally. Accordingly GS Consumer handles the local marketing, sales and distribution of the entire FMCG range.
GS Consumer’s product portfolio includes personal care, home care, sanitisers and industrial detergents, George Steuart Teas and Heladiv Iced Teas and Syrups. The sector’s unique strength is its distribution model that manages its three routes to market: general trade, modern trade and B2B. By operating both a retail sales team as well as a B2B team, the company is able to seamlessly engage with both retail and industrial customers, including large-scale buyers such as hotels and factories. The company’s general trade operation involves 22 distributors reaching over 12,600 general trade outlets while its modern trade reach covers all local supermarket chains, with a presence in 1,200 outlets. The company’s strategic advantage also arises from the wider Group’s unique strengths in media and advertising, and George Steuarts’ sound reputation.
The sector’s beverage segments comprises of tea, iced tea, tea cordials and coffee. The tea range includes ‘Steuarts’ brand variants packed for the local market, including Steuarts premium BOPF, Steuarts Rosa Kahata, Steuarts Ginger Tea and Kahata Rahata in multiple pack sizes. The Heladiv Iced Tea range is a ready-to-drink iced tea in five flavour variants packed in tetrapak cartons. The beverage portfolio also includes Iced Tea Syrups and Gourmet Syrups which are predominantly sold to the HoReCa segment. Owing to its origins as a coffee agency in colonial Ceylon, the company also distributes and markets a unique blend of Ceylon Coffee branded James Coffee.
The sector’s personal care range, Seri, promises to bridge science with natural ingredients to provide safe skin care. Seri focuses on two products – face cream and face wash with the goodness of ingredients such as sandalwood, saffron and milk, sans any harmful ingredients. The products are targeted at the mid-tier and positioned as affordable skin care. In addition to Seri, the company also markets Ruvedha, an entry level safe skin care product, targeted at consumers entering the personal care category for the first time.
The Sterill Professional range includes four categories of industrial detergents: housekeeping and kitchen, autocare, laundry and sanitisers.
