Kelani Valley and Talawakelle win four National Plantation Awards

Hayleys Group’s plantation companies dominate RPC sector’s first awards presentation

Plantations companies in the Hayleys Group took major honours at the first National Plantation Awards in Sri Lanka, winning four of the 12 awards presented to Regional Plantation Companies (RPCs) by President Mahinda Rajapaksa at Temple Trees last week.
Kelani Valley Plantations PLC (KVPL) received three top awards, for ‘Commitment to Value Addition,’ ‘Innovativeness’ and ‘Highest Investment for Social Welfare Activities and Corporate Social Responsibility’ at this prestigious event.

Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC (TTEL) was presented the award for ‘Replanting – Highest Rate (Percentage) and Extent in the Tea Sector’.
KVPL was the only company to win three awards at the presentation, which was also attended by the Minister of Plantation Industries Mahinda Samarasinghe and Deputy Minister Earl Gunasekara.
“These awards are a great source of pride and encouragement not only to the respective companies but also to the Hayleys Group,” Hayleys PLC Chairman Mohan Pandithage said. “Over the two decades since the privatisation of the estates, there has been substantial investment and tremendous commitment and passion to build these companies into globally competitive businesses and brands. Being recognised with national awards is therefore most pleasing.”
KVPL’s award for ‘Value Addition’ was based on the volume of tea converted into value added tea, additional income from value addition, ownership of value addition and quantity of value added tea exported over the past five years.
The award for ‘Innovation’ recognises environmental innovativeness, social innovativeness and economic innovativeness as recommended by the Tea Research Institute and the Rubber Research Institute.
The provision of basic facilities to workers such as re-roofing  of line rooms, provision of latrines, drinking water facilities, child development centres and other activities, and  the total investment made by the company from 2006-2010 for worker welfare activities were considered for the CSR award.
TTEL’s award for ‘Replanting’ was based on the total extent of replanting and continuous commitment to Replanting over the last five years.
Kelani Valley Plantations manages 27 estates, over 13,000 hectares in extent, divided almost equally in to tea and rubber. All of the company’s black tea producing factories have been certified as HACCP and ISO 22000-2005 compliant with regard to product and quality standards, ensuring that the product meets the highest international food safety parameters.
Talawakelle Tea Estates PLC produces high-quality tea in 17 tea gardens situated in the best tea country of the land. Twelve of these estates, nestled in the Dimbula region manufacture high-grown teas while the rest, situated on the verdant planes of the South bring forth the low-growns that satisfy tea connoisseurs around the world.