Hayleys hires ex-Textured Jersey CEO to spearhead knitting mills subsidiary

Hayleys Plc has succeeded in drawing former Textured Jersey Lanka Managing Director and CEO Rohan Goonetilleke to spearhead the blue chip’s knitting mills subsidiary.

Hayleys MGT Knitting Mills said that Goonetilleke has been appointed as the Managing Director with effect from Friday. He will be replacing Dr. Emerick Fernando, who will relinquish his office today.

Holding a Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Portsmouth UK, Goonetilleke has also served as Director Brandix X’pressions Ltd., CLT Apparels (India) Ltd., the fully-owned subsidiaries of Brandix Lanka Ltd. He also served as Managing Director and CEO at Linea Clothing Ltd., a subsidiary of MAS Holdings Ltd., and CEO of Elpitiya Plantations Ltd.

After suffering from a massive fraud leading to Rs. 700 million provisioning in FY2011, Hayleys MGT continue to struggle. Loss in the first nine months of FY13 was $ 1.5 million, though down from $ 4.6 million a year earlier. Revenues were down by 8% to $ 35.3 million. In May 2012, the company raised Rs. 914 million via a Rights Issue to strengthen the balance sheet and invest on energy saving initiatives and an ERP system.

After the fraud was detected, Dr. Fernando was appointed as Hayleys MGT CEO in June 2011. He too joined Hayleys Group from Brandix where he was the CEO of the Brandix Innovation Centre and previously the CEO of Brandix Intimate Apparel Ltd. He also served as an Executive Director of Hayleys subsidiary Haycarb Ltd. in 2004/5.

He has wide exposure across multiple industries over a period of 25 years in Sri Lanka and the US. He holds a PhD from Priinceton University US and is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, India.