Hayleys Advantis turns 50

Sri Lanka’s leading transportation & logistics solutions group celebrates five decades of growth and evolution this year

Hayleys Advantis, the corporate brand that unites companies in the Hayleys Group’s transportation and logistics businesses celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, as an inspiring chronicle of evolutionary growth in the history of Sri Lankan business.

From its beginnings in 1958 as the Steamer Agency Department of Hayleys Limited six years after the parent group was incorporated under that name, Hayleys Advantis has evolved into a Rs 3.5 billion group of over 30 business units that has a strategic presence in the United States, Europe, the Far East, the Indian Sub continent and the Pacific Islands, owns ships and provides seamless integrated logistics solutions that cover air, land and sea.

Along the way, the Hayleys Advantis Group’s multi-faceted businesses have grown to become the Sri Lankan leaders in third party logistics including container yards and multi-user warehousing and distribution centres, bonded consolidation and deconsolidation, transportation and haulage; the island’s largest freight forwarding group; a supply-chain management solutions provider of global significance; a leading General Sales Agent for airlines and cargo carriers; the largest car-carrier handling agent in the Port of Colombo; and representative of the world’s largest air express freight company.

“The milestones are so numerous that we lose count,” said Mohan Pandithage, Deputy Chairman of Hayleys PLC, whose association with Hayleys Advantis and its predecessors Maritime Holdings and Maritime Agencies Limited, dates back to 1969. “As a total solutions provider in the transport and logistics sectors, Hayleys Advantis is a leader, both in terms of the services it offers today and the comprehensive infrastructure under its management.”

Expansion over the last decade has included major investments in a container yard (US$ 1.25million), and a state-of-the-art distribution centre (US$ 3million) believed to be the most modern facility of its kind in South Asia. The facility located on an eight acre block of land in Kelaniya now has 220,000 square feet and is part of a global warehousing coverage of 1.3 million square feet, servicing multinational clients.

One of the latest developments was the commissioning of Logilink, a Customs Supervised Freight Station that represents a new dimension in deconsolidation and consolidation services for the imports and exports of Sri Lanka. Advantis also capitalised on developments in Thulhiriya, opening a central logistics hub to offer services within the MAS Fabric Park. In October 2008 the Group also expanded its portfolio in the marine services sector by partnering with the UK based Edgo Group, through its consultancy arm Edgo Merap, to provide support services to the oil and energy sector. The Group also ventured into bunker supplying, having obtained its bunkering license earlier this year.  

Mr. Pandithage disclosed that the company plans to recognise nine people who have been with the Group for 25 of its 50 eventful years as part of a series of internal and external commemoratory activities planned for this year. Commenting on the Hayleys Adva ntis Group’s contribution to the parent group, Hayleys PLC Chairman N. G. Wickremeratne said: “Transportation has been one of the most significant components of the mainstream businesses of Hayleys in the last several years. It is a sector which has seen appreciable change in recent times. Hayleys Advantis has been remarkably able to adapt and develop its businesses to use the new opportunities that presented themselves.”

Mr. Wickremeratne said another distinctive feature of Hayleys Advantis was its success in integrating the multiple products and services its Group companies provide, to offer customers packaged solutions from a single contact point. Hayleys Advantis offers seven key services - International Freight, Third Party Logistics, Shipping and Marine Services, Warehousing and Transit Facilities, Haulage, Aviation and Travel and Agency Representation.

Hayleys PLC, whose origins date back to the establishment of Chas P. Hayley & Company in Galle in 1878, today comprises of businesses in Global Markets & Manufacturing (Fibre, Hand Protection, Purification Products and Textiles), Agriculture & Agri Business (Agri Inputs, Agri Products and Plantations), Transport & Infrastructure (Transportation, Industry Inputs and Power & Energy), Consumer & Leisure (Consumer Products and Resorts) and Investments & Services. Rated a Business Superbrand by The Superbrands Organisation, Hayleys accounts for 2.7 per cent of Sri Lanka’s export income.