Hayleys Plantations shines with 20 awards at Forbes and Walker Tea Awards 2016

Sri Lanka’s leading tea producers from the Hayleys Group, Kelani Valley Plantations (KVPL) and Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC (TTEL), recorded resounding victories at the recently-concluded Forbes and Walker Tea Awards 2016.

The two companies, which together comprise the plantation arm of the Hayleys Group, secured a total of 20 awards in recognition of their outstanding achievements in securing productivity improvements and increases in sales volumes and prices across 2015 and 2016.

“The Hayleys Group through KVPL and TTEL has consistently worked to achieve performance excellence across all aspects of our tea business, and in that regard, we take great pride in the immense recognition that our companies received at the prestigious Forbes and Walker Tea Awards 2017. While the industry as a whole continues to face serious systemic challenges, both KVPL and TTEL have showed tremendous resilience and moving forward, we will continue to adapt our business models, augmenting them with international industry best practices to drive further improvements to the business while setting new benchmarks for the Sri Lankan tea industry,” KVPL and TTEL Managing Director Roshan Rajadurai stated.  

TTEL won tremendous recognition for its performances during the past two years being ranked as Best Performing RPC for the Highest GSA High Grown Category, Low Grown Category and Highest Overall GSA for both 2015 and 2016. Meanwhile, the company’s Great Western, Bearwell and Dessford Estates were all ranked among the Top 10 Marks in the Western High Grown Category in addition to winning the award for Most Number of Top Prices in the Western High Grown Category for both years, in addition to further awards for Highest Sales Average for Kiruwanaganga Estate in the RPC Low-Grown category and Deniyaya Estate recorded third Highest Sale Average in the RPC Low Grown Category.

Similarly, KVPL estates secured multiple awards for the Highest Agro-climatic Average for Black Tea in both 2015 and 2016, and was also ranked in the top two performers under the Best Performing Regional Plantation Companies (Sales Average) category for low grown in 2015 and high grown in 2016. Meanwhile, the company’s Fordyce estate won recognition for the largest improvement in turnover by elevation while KVPL’s Pedro Estate won the award for Highest Improvement in Sales Average for Black Tea.

The accolades won by Hayleys Plantations at the Forbes and Walker Tea Awards 2016 represents the latest in a long series of awards for both KVPL and TTEL. The Group’s plantation arm recently won the Gold Award for Leading HR Practices in Quality Work-Life at the Global HR Excellence Awards 2017, in addition to Gold and Silver Awards at the National Business Excellence Awards, National HR Excellence Award, Asia-Pacific HR Award, JASTECA CSR Award, Green Awards, Occupational Health & Safety, National Social Dialogue & Workplace Corporation Awards. 

Additionally, TTEL was declared winner and KVPL runners-up, for both the Best Presented Annual Report Award conducted by CA Sri Lanka, and at the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) Best Presented Annual Report Awards.

Since its entry into the plantation sector following the privatisation of State-owned estates in 1992 up to the present day, Hayleys Plantations sector’s extensive human development programs have resulted in the development and continues improvement in human care, living standards, health and nutrition, employee engagement and empowerment. These programs have been designed with a central focus on empowerment of both employees and the communities they live in. 

TTEL was able to maintain the number one tea ranking among all Regional Plantations Companies and KVPL also maintained their position been number one in rubber ranking with the highest recorded yield of 1008 Kg/ha.

Hayleys Plantations Sector is comprised of Kelani Valley Plantations (KVPL) and Talawakelle Tea Estates (TTEL). Both companies have consistently been ranked number one among Sri Lanka’s regional plantation companies in rubber and tea respectively. The sector manages 44 tea and rubber estates, with KVPL holding the record for the country’s highest ever yield of 1008 kg per hectare. In total, Hayleys Plantations manages over 19,500 hectares of land and accounts for 4.5% and 2.5% of Sri Lanka’s tea and rubber production respectively.