Who owns Watawala Tea?
Watawala Tea is owned by Sunshine Holdings (Sri Lanka, CSE: SUN.N0000).[1]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: Sunshine Holdings PLC Annual Report 2025/26. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Sunshine Holdings PLC reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka, Colombo
- Origin
- 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka
- Category
- Beverages › Coffee, tea & hot drinks › Tea
- Parent ticker
- CSE: SUN.N0000
- Last verified
- · 1 sources
About Watawala Tea
Watawala Tea is the mass-market brand in Sunshine Holdings' packaged tea range in Sri Lanka, between the premium Zesta and the value Ran Kahata. The brand is owned by the group's wholly owned consumer business, not by Watawala Plantations, the separately listed plantation company that shares its name and in which the group's effective holding is 38.42 per cent.
Ownership timeline of Watawala Tea
- Current owner Sunshine Holdings [1] reported
Where Watawala Tea sits in Sunshine Holdings
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Sunshine Holdings ownership tree →
See the full Sunshine Holdings brand portfolio (5) →
Other brands owned by Sunshine Holdings
Sunshine Holdings controls 5 brands on Brandtree, 3 of them in beverages.
Also in beverages
Other brands in tea, and who owns them
The 35 brands in tea on Brandtree belong to 21 owners. The largest is Orimi Trade, with 6; Sunshine Holdings has 3.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Gita | Orimi Trade | 🇷🇺 Russia |
| Fahari Ya Kenya | Ketepa | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
| Five Roses | AVI | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| ITO EN Matcha Green Tea | ITO EN | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Piala Gold | RG Brands | 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan |
| Tata Tea | Tata Consumer | 🇮🇳 India |
| Good Nature | Alkaloid | 🇲🇰 North Macedonia |
| Twinings | Associated British Foods | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
About the owner: Sunshine Holdings
Sunshine Holdings is a publicly listed company headquartered in Colombo, Sri Lanka, founded in 1967. Brandtree records 5 brands under its control, and it is listed as CSE: SUN.N0000.
Sunshine Holdings is a Sri Lankan group that began in 1967 as a single pharmacy in Gampola and now works in healthcare, consumer brands and plantations. It imports, makes, distributes and sells medicines through Sunshine Healthcare Lanka, in which the World Bank's IFC holds 14.73 per cent, and owns branded tea and confectionery businesses outright. Its plantation arm, Watawala Plantations, was acquired in partnership with the Tata Group. Revenue grew 11.2 per cent to LKR 65.9 billion in the year to March 2026.
Sunshine Holdings: full profile, brands and acquisition history →
🇱🇰 Watawala Tea and other Sri Lankan brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 60 brands that began in Sri Lanka. 1 of them (2%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Watawala Tea is not one of them.
- Bison — DCSL 🇱🇰
- Elephant House — Ceylon Cold Stores 🇱🇰
- KIST — Cargills 🇱🇰
- Lion Lager — Lion Brewery 🇱🇰
- My Juicee — Lanka Milk Foods 🇱🇰
- Atlas — Hemas 🇱🇰
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of Watawala Tea?
The parent company of Watawala Tea is Sunshine Holdings, a publicly listed company headquartered in Sri Lanka.
Is Watawala Tea Sri Lankan?
Yes. Watawala Tea originated in Sri Lanka and its owner, Sunshine Holdings, is also headquartered in Sri Lanka.
Is Watawala Tea still owned by Sunshine Holdings?
Yes. As of 27 October 2026, Watawala Tea is still owned by Sunshine Holdings. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (1) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Sunshine Holdings PLC Annual Report 2025/26 — Sunshine Holdings PLC, Annual report; retrieved 27 October 2026.
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