i

GROUP NO: 01
Department
GROUP NO 01
of Marketing Management 1
 01. THE COMPANY
Executive Summary

Unilever is a multinational consumer product manufacturing giant operating in over hundred countries
all around the world. Unilever’s one of the most popular brand is LUX. And lux fulfills the corporate
connection of Unilever. Unilever follows the government rules & regulations & lux is sold according to
the social culture of our country. Lux is segmented according to the geographical locations. Targeted
customers are the urban and sub urban upper middle class and middle class people. There are other
competitor of lux but among of them lux’s market share is high. Market trends & market potential is
satisfactory of lux. And the main objective of lux is to satisfy the customer. Lux marketing strategies is
good. Lux positioning strategy, product development, pricing, distribution, marketing communication
or promotion activities is done nicely. So lux position is high, product is best, price is affordable &
promotional activities are really very good than others.

Day by day lux is creating a special image in the customers mind & they are capturing the market in a
large number. The total marketing plan will be implemented by different departments. The financial
projection of lux is good now. Because it is now on maturity stage. But at the last stage of maturity their
total sells will be equal to total profit and that will be their breakeven point. Now the sales of lux are
really very good. So the profit is high. But after the maturity stage this product may be destroyed or this
product may be re-launched again in a new feather according to the customers demand. Though Unilever
companies strategy is good but Unilever should undertake further steps such as- moving towards the
rural and poorer segment, attract children by making a special product for kids and other innovative
promotional activities to retain its command in the industry.

GROUP NO 01 2
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Objective of this Report………………………………………………………….03

2. About the Product………………………………………………………………..04

3. Product Types………………………………………………………………….....04

4. Situational Analysis………………………………………………………………06

5. Corporate Marketing Plan……………………………………………………....06

6. Environmental Analysis and Forecast….……………………………………….06

7. Competitive Analysis…………………….……………………………………….09

8. SWOT Analysis…………………………….……………………………………..10

9. Market Strategies………………………….……………………………………...12

10.Segmentation……………………………………………………………………...12

11.Targeting……………………………………………………………………….….13

12.Objective of Lux………………………………………………………………….14

13.Positioning………………………………………………………………………...15

14.Marketing Mix……………………………………………………………………16

15.Market Research………………………………………………………………….20

16.Financial Protection………………………………………………………………22

17.Implementation Control………………………………………………………….24

18.Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………26

19.Reference……………………………………………………………………….….27

GROUP NO 01 3
 LUX Marketing Plan

Objective of this report

This report is an outcome of an analysis of marketing Plan used by Unilever Ltd. The main purpose of
the report is to find the planning what the company uses to market its world famous beauty soap, LUX,
in Sri lanka. The positive and negative aspects of those strategies. The report further analyzes the position
of Unilever Ltd in the toiletry industry when comparison to its competitors. The report discusses the
situation analysis corporate connection, process of using market segmentation, target marketing, the
product, pricing, promotional and distribution strategies and a competitive analysis action activities and
implementation control as well as the financial position, branding strategy and supply chain process.

Methodology of the study

For accessibility and availability of information we have chosen to work on the marketing plan of
Unilever Ltd. As the company operates in the market with a huge number of products in different
industries, we have decided to focus on one of their worldwide successful brands, LUX. Most of the
information used in this report is from secondary sources. The main source of information was the focus
group discussion. In addition, information was also collected from websites.

Limitations of the Study

Every attempt will be taken to obtain the meaningful & error free result but as nothing in this world is
100% perfect. We believe that there will still the chances for error because of the following limitations-

• Their product website is not updated.

• As the research was groping in nature, it was not possible to study the accurate
phenomenon of the fact

LUX Marketing Plan

About Product

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Everything from look and feel to fragrances of Lux is a delight to the female senses. Lux has been
associated with beauty since 1924. Over the years, Lux has covered various aspects of beauty and
stardom. But now Lux feels that women have forgotten that beauty should be fun. And looking great is
an integral part of being a woman. Lux is here to remind, encourage, inspire women and have fun with
them. Because of deep down, every woman wants to feel like a fortune. On this note, Lux is
celebrating the feminity and playfulness to remind women to enjoy absolutely everything about
becoming and being beautiful

Product types

• Lux Strawberry and Cream: Every woman wants to be indulged! Use Lux Strawberry and
Cream to fill your skin smooth and silky. Lovingly created with a sumptuous mix of luscious
strawberries and moisturizing cream extracts that leaves your skin soft.

• Lux Peach and Cream: No women can resist the pleasure of being pampered. Use Lux Peach
and Cream, lovingly created with the blend of juicy peach and moisturizing cream extracts, for a
velvety, soft skin. Just gorgeous!

LUX Marketing Plan

GROUP NO 01 5
 • Aqua Sparkle: Wake up to a body that looks fresh and full of life. Lux Aqua Sparkle, with
refreshing mineral salts and seaweed extracts, is the best kept secret to help renew your skin from
bored to full of life! There won’t be dull days!

• Lux Purple Lotus & Cream: New Lux purple lotus & cream, truly makes your skin
softer than a petal. Since bathing is a daily ritual, it's very important to use the right kind of soap
that moisturizes your skin and leaves you feeling your gorgeous best!

• Lux Fresh Splash: A new summer variant Lux Fresh Splash has also been added to the portfolio
of Lux along with this re-launch. Lux is now in a new shape, new packaging and improved
fragrance. For the first time, Lux is enriched with Silk Protein Extract which provides soft &
smooth skin. And with all these changes, Lux is now the Best Ever Lux!

Situational Analysis

01. THE COMPANY

Corporate Connection of Marketing Plan

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Unilever Limited, a fast-moving consumer goods company, engages in the manufacture and
distribution of home care products, personal care products, and foods. It offers household care, fabric
cleaning, skin cleansing, skin care, oral care, hair care, and personal grooming products, as well as tea-
based beverages.
Their mission & vision is to build their business by focusing on their brands & to fulfill the customer
satisfaction. They know that customer wants a healthy lifestyle & they want more variety & quality
product. So, to satisfy the customer they have launched Lux. Because Lux will be able to satisfy the
customer needs & wants. They want to capture more market share to delight the consumer of Lux.
They provide better quality product in between reasonable price. Their mission & vision support the
corporate connection of marketing plan of Lux.

Environmental Analysis and Forecasting

 Internal environment

Internal environment of lux consists of employees and resources. Lux has a large group of employees
they are closely binding like a grand family. Lux is an established product so it has a huge amount of
resources.

 External environment

External environment is so much important for any organization. From external environment they can
find out their threat and also take opportunities to meet the market need.

01. THE COMPANY

Diagram of Lux- Basic Elements of External Environment

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Mainly two types of business element in external environment:

1. Directly interacting forces.

 Competitors
 Suppliers
 Buyers
 Owners
2. Indirectly interacting forces.
 Government/Political
 Economic
 Technology
 Socio culture
 Legal

But among of them major external environment factors are:

 Social
 Political &
 Economic trend

01. THE COMPANY

 Social

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 Unilever sells lux by maintaining the social or socio-cultural environment of the country. They
don’t use anything which can hurt the culture of our country. Because of
this they are selling Lux nicely.

 Political or Government
They follow the government rules & regulations. So they don’t face any kind of problem.
According to government rules they pay taxes. But
sometimes due to political instability they have some problem in business environment. For the
next six-month political instability can be happened. So they need to take appropriate steps for
this. If they do their product development, promotional activities & others now then they will be
able to sell lux nicely.

 Economic Trends
According to the purchasing power of people lux is sold. Unilever knows that Bangladesh
economy is growing economy. According to that thing they have set the price of lux.

Competitive Analysis

The beauty soap industry has a few major producers of which Unilever holds market share of slightly
less than 50%. Other competing brands like Tibet, Aromatic, Meryl, Lilly, Lifebuoy and Keya have
started to have strong consumer base, but LUX’s product features, distribution and promotional activities
have created high brand loyalty for which it is still the market leader.

01. THE COMPANY

Market trends & potential

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Lux market trends & potential is really very good. So Unilever tried to maintain the lux trend & potential.
They follow a structured price strategy and follow the need of the customer & maintain a consistency in
branding. They know that if they are able to maintain their market trend & potential then other
competitors can’t hamper them.

SOWT Analysis of Lux

SWOT analysis is an important step in planning and its value is often underestimated despite the
simplicity in creation. The role of SWOT analysis is to take the information from the environmental
analysis and separate it into internal issues (strengths and weaknesses) and
external issues (opportunities and threats).

STRENGTHS
 Strong Market Research (door to door sampling is done once a year in Urban and Rural areas).
 Many variants.
 Strong sales and distribution network.
 Strong brand image.
 Positioning focuses on the attractive beauty segment.
 Strong brand promotion but relatively lower price which is a winning combination in the
popular segment.

WEAKNESSES
 Usage rate/ wear rate is high and is generally mushy and wet.
 Lux is mainly positioned as beauty soap targeted towards women, hence it lacks liberal appeal.
 Stock out problems - replacement time is high in semi-urban/rural area

01. THE COMPANY

OPPORTUNITIES

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  Beauty segment’s Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) is very high. Lux must
reinforce its presence in the beauty segment.
 Retentive strategy required as the soap segment is in the mature stage of its product life cycle.
 Liquid body wash is currently in the growth stage so Lux should come out with more variants
in this segment.
 Line extension – probably with more variants catering to the beauty segment like natural,
herbal soap etc.

THREATS
 High internal competition.
 New entrants or local competitors. Excessive dependence on beauty segment makes Lux
vulnerable to changing customer tastes.
 Technological change makes the existing products out of date. Lux should focus on
technological innovations like Body Wash.

01. THE COMPANY

Market Strategies

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 Segmentation

TYPE OF BOAP

P BRAUTY SOAP HEALTHY SOAP

R
Dove Fa Farmesi
I Imperial

C Lux Savlon Lifebuoy

From the above diagram we can easily understand that Lux follow a segment which capturing the
beauty soap category and price is average. So, the target customers are who those are beauty conscious
and can pay medium price for a better soap. For this it holds a slogan to the women “declare your
beauty”.

Urban and sub urban middle class, and rural poor people are the largest part of Bangladesh population.
A research carried out by Unilever Bangladesh reveals that urban rich people are more likely to buy
imported and expensive products. More over rural poor people tend to buy cheap products even without
evaluating its quality. However urban and sub urban upper middle- and middle-class people tend to buy
affordable and quality products

Urban Rich

Urban and Sub

Urban Upper
Middle and Middle
Class

Rural Poor
01. THE COMPANY
Targeting

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LUX is not a highly expensive but an affordable product. That is why the company targets urban and
sub urban upper middle- and middle-class people who are the second highest population of segment of
the country. From the segmentation of customer according to socio economic clusters (SEC) they target
category B and C, because they are assumed to be financially well-off and can afford to buy LUX.

Socio Economic Clusters

A B C D E

Income High Income Upper Mid Lower Middle Low

Middle Level Level Income Income
Income Income

Education High Level of Educated Educated Educated Very low

Education Slightly Less Slightly Level of
Slightly less
than Cluster A Less than Literacy
Cluster B than Cluster C

Socio economic clusters segmentation

01. THE COMPANY

Objective of Lux
 Establish a strong brand image and consumer loyalty.

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  Maintain positive strong growth.
 Decrease consumer acquisition cost by almost 1.5% per year.
 Easiest and availability of the product to the target consumer.

Marketing Strategies

 Marketing strategy is a process that can allow an organization to concentrate its limited
resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable
competitive advantage.
 Unilever can do their marketing strategies for Lux in the following process.

01. THE COMPANY

Market Position of LUX

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Unilever Ltd can be obtained a good position in the buyers’ mind through better product attributes, price
and quality, offering the product in a different way than the competitors do. The company offers
improved quality of products in the industry at an affordable price with high branding, which ultimately
helps to position the product in the buyers’ mind as the best quality beauty soap.

Since in the beauty soap industry all products are of same price. But Unilever cannot provide its
consumers with better price but it is in a great position in reference with its packaging, fragrances and
product designing, in comparison to its competitors. The pricing of LUX is same but consumers rate it
as the product which gives them the highest quality. This positioning created a strong customer loyalty
for LUX, for which it will be the market leader in the industry.

The positioning map of the company is shown to describe LUX’s position in the consumers mind on two
dimensions. That is price and quality

01. THE COMPANY

Marketing Mix

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 Product

Everything from look and feel to fragrances of Lux is a delight to the female senses. Over the years, Lux
has covered various aspects of beauty and stardom. But now Lux feels that women have forgotten that
beauty should be fun and looking great is an integral part of being a woman. Lux is here to remind,
encourage, inspire women and have fun with them. Because deep down, every woman wants to feel like
a fortune. On this note, Lux is celebrating the feminity and playfulness to remind women to enjoy
absolutely everything about becoming and being beautiful. So lux offers many different colors and
fragrances products like Lux Strawberry and Cream, Lux Peach and Cream, Aqua Sparkle, Lux
Purple Lotus & Cream. These create a different personality to hold the market position and maximum
market share. Branding is an important matter for every product. Branding for Lux can help to achieve
the first objective of the Lux marketing plan. It also reinforces the second objective.

Pricing
Though Unilever gives its LUX customers a lot in terms of the product itself, it cannot provide a better
pricing. This is due to some constraints in the beauty soap industry. Beauty soap is a product with a
vulnerable demand. A change in price has a high risk of creating price war among the rivals which will
eventually cause a loss of profit. Its prices are almost equal to its competitor. Lux basically follows the
risk-free pricing. Table compares Lux’s price with its major competitor. Company carries out research
on competitors’ price and brand loyalty when it feels extreme necessity of changing price. The brand
loyalty test is an exploratory research which is known as Brand Health Check-Up (BHCU).

Sometimes it follows promotional pricing by which consumer get one free through buy one. For capture
more market share manager can follow product line strategy to reach more customers from higher level
to lower level. Also, can follow value pricing.

01. THE COMPANY

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 Comparative scenario of soaps price

Brand Price(100gm)

Lux 26

Aromatic 26

keya 26

Sandalina 29

Distribution
Unilever Ltd has a huge distribution channel for LUX all over the country as its sales reach more than
10 million pieces a year. The company does not use its own fleet of transport for distributing its product.
However, it has outsourced its distribution process to various third party distributors, exclusively
dedicated to Unilever Ltd. These distributors then supply the product all over world to a huge number of
retailers. Even though LUX targets the urban and sub urban middle and upper middle class people they
are distributing their products all over Srilanka because of a recent increase in demand of its product to
all segments of the population.

Promotion
Unilever can undertake huge promotional activities to promote LUX which has topped the beauty soap
industry. It spends almost 20% to 25% of its Net Proceeds from Sales (NPC) of LUX for promotional
activities for LUX. The promotion mix is classified as follows:

01. THE COMPANY

 Advertising: It’s certain annual promotional campaigns like LUX Channel

GROUP NO 01 17
 Superstar and LUX Channel. Annual Cinema Awards has made the product a part of the
glamour world. Since the 1930s, over 400 of the world’s most stunning and sensuous women
have been proudly associated with Lux advertisements. They do not only promote LUX for
the beauty conscious females, it also promotes the brand for males and the company proved
that, by including world famous male and female celebrities internationally Shahrukh Khan,
Aishwarya Rai, Katrina Kaif for their advertising campaign. They give advertise through
Transit, Electronic Media, Print Media, Direct. For effective advertising have to decide media
chart and the type, tone, appeal and order of presentation of advertising.

 Sales Promotion: Sales promotion, a key ingredient in marketing campaigns, consists of a

collection of incentive tools, mostly short term, designed to stimulate quicker or greater
purchase of particular products or services by consumers or the trade. Whereas advertising
offers a reason to buy, sales promotion offers an incentive to buy.

 Public Relations: Not only must the company relate constructively to customers, suppliers
and dealers, it must also relate to a large number of interested publics. A public is any group
that has an actual or potential interest in or impact on a company’s ability to achieve its
objectives. PR involves a variety of programs designed to promote or protect a company’s
image or its individual products.

They can perform the following functions,

 Press relations
 Product Publicity
 Corporate Communications
 Counseling

01. THE COMPANY

 Direct Marketing: Unilever Ltd spends a huge amount of money for promoting LUX
through TV commercials, newspaper advertisements and billboards. Moreover, it also
undertakes small promotional campaigns at different schools, colleges, universities and

GROUP NO 01 18
 recreational parks with winners of its Zonal Beauty Contests. Till now direct marketing
activities of LUX is in well concern among people.

01. THE COMPANY

Market Research

After successfully doing the above statements it is important to do market research. Because if it

GROUP NO 01 19
is done then they will be able to know the customers problem and according to that they can improve the
product quality. And if they improve the product quality then they will be able to sell their product in a
huge number and be able to satisfy the customer. As Unilever is a big company so if they do market
research then they will be able to know the consumer need & according to their need they can supply
the product within a reasonable price.

Action Programs

Unilever Ltd has a very well-structured organization. Every department of it does its job very efficiently.
The marketing plan which we have made will be implemented and accomplished by different
departments. First of all the plan will have to be approved by the top level executives. The strategies
regarding the product, its promotional activities, price setting all will be done by the marketing
department. They can set the time of advertisement of lux. In rainy season they don’t need to do billboard
advertisement. They can do this kind of advertisement in summer or winter season. For advertisement it
can follow the media chart which is shown below.

Whatever advertisement given is not so much important; important is the timing of advertisement. For
Lux middle of any popular television program advertise may be more effective than middle of an
unexciting talk show. As it is a beauty soap, the appeal of advertisement bearing emotion which consist
romance not family ties. If in the future company wants to offer unisex Lux soap, in advertisement they
can show the family ties as well. Lux is now in maturity stage so reminder advertising is most appropriate
at this stage.

01. THE COMPANY

GROUP NO 01 20
 Media Chart
Media Summer Rainy Autumn Late Winter Spring
Type Autumn
Radio      
Television A      
level
Television B   
level
Billboard   
Newspaper    
English
Newspaper      
Bangle

The job of designing the product, manufacturing and packaging will be accomplished by the production
department. They can add more fragrances in lux. Finance department will be responsible for budgeting
and financing the product. They need to set a specific budget so that they will be able to earn profit. Like
other brands of the company, a brand manager needs to administer overall activities of the product. If it
is done then they will be able to capture most of the market share.

01. THE COMPANY

Financial Projection

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Lux is doing their business nicely. Their financial projection is given below.

Sells Next three Next month six Next year one After one After two
month year year

Super markets 3100000 5025000 7700000 59200000 79852000

Others 5200000 8578000 10520000 75605000 91250000

Total sells 8300000 13603000 18220000 134805000 171102000
Cost of Next three Next six Next one After one After two
Production month month Year year year

Direct cost 2600000 4922000 7161000 51605000 70630000

Indirect cost 4100000 6791000 8873000 68920000 85020000
Total cost 6700000 11713000 16034000 120525000 155650000
Profit Next three Next six Next year one After one After two
month month year year

Total profit 1600000 1890000 2186000 14280000 15452000

In the above chart we see that profit of lux is increasing. It is our assumed profit. If this condition exists
then lux will be able to earn profit. But now lux is in the maturity stage. After 10 years new competitor
will enter into the market & then their sells will be declined. If they want to exist in the market then they
need to kill the new competitor. But in this world no product can exist forever. So on the last stage of
their maturity may be their total sells will be equal to total profit & that will be their breakeven point.
And on the decline stage the product may be declined. But if they want to save lux then they need to re-
launch the lux in a new way & in a new image on the decline stage.

GROUP NO 01 22
The above diagram is the diagram of product life cycle. Now lux is in the maturity stage. On the decline
stage they can destroy the product or they can re-launch lux in a new way & image.

01. THE COMPANY

Implementation Control

Sales objective

Their sales objective will be to sell Lux as much as possible. Because if they sell Lux then they will be
able to earn a huge amount of profit.

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 Sales forecast

Lux feels that the sales forecast is conservative. It will steadily increase sells as the advertising budget
allows. As this Lux will be available in both super markets & other stores, so in the following table we
can see its sales forecast.

Sales 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Super 18000000 20000000 25000000 30000000 30000000

markets

others 20000000 22000000 30000000 40000000 50000000

Total sales 38000000 42000000 55000000 70000000 80000000

We assume that now Lux position is good. And hopefully next year their sells will be increasing. But
when their sells started to decline then proper promotional activities will be pushed to increase the sells.

01. THE COMPANY

Expenditure against budget

The expense forecast will be used as a tool to keep the department on target & provide indicators when
correction & modification are needed for the proper implementation of the marketing task.

Now the marketing expense is limited for Lux because it is on maturity stage. But after the maturity
stage marketing expense will be increased as promotional activities will be increased.

GROUP NO 01 24
 Periodic evaluation of all marketing objectives

After that it is important to evaluate the marketing objectives time to time. If it is done then it will be
better for them. Because of this they will be able to identify the problem & solve the problem.

Readjustment to the marketing plan

If any activities didn’t done in the marketing plan then those activities must be readjusted to the
marketing plan. If it is done then unilever will be able to sell Lux in a large number.

01. THE COMPANY

Conclusion

Unilever is a multinational consumer product manufacturing and operating hundred countries all around
the globe. Unilever is one of the most popular brand is LUX. Marketing plan of Lux support the corporate
view. They segment LUX market according to geographical locations. It further differentiates these
segments into Socio Economic Cluster SEC. Tactical marketing tools are extensively used by the
company to market LUX. Though LUX is produced, Unilever maintains the same standard all around
the globe. The product is available in different fragrances under three different sizes. Since the demand
for beauty soap market is to a great extent oligopolistic, variations in price lead to price war which can

GROUP NO 01 25
eventually break down The Company’s market share. Thus Unilever cannot provide a better price than
its competitors but the price is affordable by most of the people. Unilever has outsourced its distribution
channels to third party distributors which allow them to distribute LUX in massive bulks amounting to
around ten million pieces. It undertakes the largest promotional activities in the beauty soap industry.
Other competing brands like Tibbet, Aromatic and Keya have started to have a strong consumer base
but LUX’ s product features distribution and promotional activities have created high brand loyalty for
which it is still in the market leader. Unilever with the aid of its heavy promotional activities has been
able to penetrate the market but the other producers in the industry are posing a threat towards Unilever’s
market share as they have moved towards the rural masses of the population.

Therefore, Unilever should undertake further steps such as- moving towards the rural and poorer
segment, attract children by making a special product for kids and other innovative promotional
activities to retain its command in the industry.

01. THE COMPANY

References

 http://l.yimg.com/t/movies/glamsham/20100303/06/20100302-
1600001_1267597529_large.jpg viewed on 27th July, 2012.
 http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Lever-Brothers-company-
companyHistory.html viewed on 28th July, 2012.
 http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=518
86 625 viewed on 29th July, 2012.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lux_%28soap%29 viewed on 30th July, 2012.

GROUP NO 01 26
  http://www.google.com/search?pq=lux+beauty+soap+-
+lotus+of+bangladesh&hl=en&ds=i&cp=8&gs_id=ad&xhr=t&um viewed on 31st July,
2012.

Group Members (Group No: 01)

16MAM4877 B.M.A.R. Bandaranayaka

16MAM4913 K.A.P.S. Kuruppu
16MAM4922 H.A.P. Madhushanka
16MAM4983 D.S.K. Bulumulla
16MAM5002 S.D.R. L Dissanayaka
16MAM5047 M.M.N.S.P. Kumari
16MAM5061 N.A.R. Madhushika
16MAM5156 S.D. Ukwaththa

GROUP NO 01 27