John Keells Holdings ranked as Sri Lanka’s Most Respected Entity for record 14th year

The award for Sri Lanka’s No. 1 Most Respected entity for 2019 is presented to John Keells Holdings’ Chairman Krishan Balendra (centre) by LMD’s Marketing Director Brian Emmanuel (left) and Senior Manager – Marketing Frank Gabriel (right)

For a record 14th year, John Keells Holdings PLC (JKH) was ranked as the Most Respected entity in Sri Lanka, in the recently released edition of LMD’s Most Respected entities issue. In terms of the 10 attribute rankings, JKH has taken the lead in seven categories, namely financial performance, management profile, honesty, dynamism, corporate culture, CSR and vision.  

JKH retained its position as the Most Respected entity by garnering the highest number of votes (1,561) in a survey commissioned and conceptualised by LMD and conducted by Nielsen. The survey was designed to rank the ‘Most Respected’ entities in Sri Lanka based on the perceptions of respondents – and to evaluate why they’re perceived as such. The survey covered a sample of 800 respondents (managers and above) from listed companies. JKH has occupied its number one position in LMD Most Respected rankings for 14 of the 15 years since the rankings were launched. 

JKH Chairman Krishan Balendra in his interview in the August 2019 issue of LMD said, “Our core values of doing the right thing; building strong and sustainable relationships with employees, partners and other stakeholders; fostering a great place to work; empowering employees and constantly raising the bar have contributed to our success in earning respect. From recruitment to induction, training, performance appraisal and attendant benefits, we have woven values into our fabric, and created an environment of respect and integrity in working towards the Group vision of being a leader in all endeavours.”  

JKH, a Sri Lankan company, operating over 70 companies in seven diverse industry sectors and currently holds the highest market capitalisation in the CSE.  JKH provides employment to over 13,000 persons, is a full member of the World Economic Forum and a member of the UN Global Compact. 

JKH drives its CSR vision of “empowering the nation for tomorrow” through the John Keells Foundation and through the social entrepreneurship initiative, ‘Plasticcycle’, operates with the vision of “becoming a catalyst in significantly reducing plastic pollution in 

Sri Lanka”.