Going strong at 140: Hayleys No.1 in LMD Top 20 rankings for second consecutive year

Iconic diversified multinational conglomerate, Hayleys PLC, maintained its position at the forefront of Sri Lanka’s corporate sector by becoming No.1 in the 25th edition of the LMD Top 20 for the second consecutive year.

The announcement of the LMD Top 20 was made ahead of the complete Top 100 list which will be released in December. Notably, the group’s position at the top of LMD’s rankings comes at a time when Hayleys is celebrating 140 years of innovation and business excellence in Sri Lanka. This year’s ranking also amounts to the fourth occasion that Hayleys has occupied the prime position in Sri Lanka’s version of the Fortune 500.

“From its inception, the Hayleys Group has served as a beacon of innovation in Sri Lanka and it is with pride to note that 140 years later, we still continue to display the same spirit of entrepreneurial dynamism that has long distinguished Hayleys PLC. Our retention of the Number 1 position in the LMD Top 100 rankings for the second year running serves as a resounding validation of our growth oriented trajectory.I wish to convey my sincere gratitude to our team of employees for their unwavering commitment.We wouldmove forward with renewed determination to elevate Hayleys PLC and the Sri Lankan economy to new heights,” Hayleys Chairman and Chief Executive Mohan Pandithage stated.

Over the course of the last financial year, Hayleys became the first listed company in Sri Lanka to achieve $ 1 billion turnover, representing a 47% Year-on-Year (YoY) improvement, whilst the group’s extensive range of exports accounts for 3.3% of the nation’s total export earnings.  

Hayleys PLC’s top ranking in this year’s LMD Top 20 is the latest in a long series of prestigious accolades to the group, which was once again declared among LMD’s Top 3 Most Respected Corporates in Sri Lanka, in addition to securing a place in the inaugural Top 10 Most Admired Companies in Sri Lankaby the International Chamber of Commerce, Sri Lanka (ICCSL) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Sri Lanka.

The Group has also been regularly featured as winner of Sri Lanka’s Best Corporate Citizen Award by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, in recognition of the Hayleys flagship corporate social responsibility initiative, Sath Diyawara, a vital program aimed at delivering safe, clean drinking water to communities in Sri Lanka’s dry zone that have been harshly impacted by the outbreak of Chronic Kidney Disease of unknown aetiology (CKDu), towards which the group has invested $ 2.3 million to date.   

In its 140th year, the group continued to set new milestones through such high profile initiatives as its acquisition of Singer Sri Lanka PLC in a transaction which was the single largest in the history of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) in the recent past. 

Catering to over 7.6 million customers world-wide, the Hayleys Group today stands as one of Sri Lanka’svibrant corporate entities, providing direct employment to 32,000 Sri Lankans, in addition to providing indirect employment to over 20,000 people. Following its establishment in 1878 as a trading house for the import of valuable goods, and export of locally produced goods such as spices, coir yarn and essential oils; the group has rapidly expanded in the scope and scale of its operations. Today, Hayleys maintains a global presence across 5 continents with business interests spanning a total of 16 sectors.