Hayleys to invest over Rs 1Bn in infrastructure, machinery, other crops and solar energy
Hayleys plans to invest over Rs one billion in infrastructure upgrading plant and machinery, transport fleet and diversifying into other crops and solar energy, Hayleys Plantations Managing Director Dr. Roshan Rajadurai told Daily News in the sidelines of the Hayleys Plantations Best Tea Harvester Competition held in Radella on Saturday.
Dr. Rajadurai said they have also invested with Martin Bauer for instant tea, and looking at crop diversification because tea and rubber is very labour intensive, and were going into crops which were more efficient and are harvested six times or 10 times a year like coconut or cinnamon which brings in higher revenue at a lower cost and also try to increase or optimize a value of a unit of land and not the number of activities.
He said they were also planning to diversify and go into eco-tourism and scientific research based tourism, making use of the rich biodiversity in their estates.
He said they have also invested Rs 1 billion in a state of the art tea factory to be commissioned in Kiruwanaganga soon. He also expressed optimism that if tea prices remain as it is and fertilizer available at a cost and trickle of weedicides coming in, the country might surpass last year’s crop and get more than last year’s revenue which was USD 1.26 billion.
Commenting on successful completion of Best Tea Harvester Competition and employee felicitation ceremony held at Radella he said, “whereas Hayley’s Plantations is concerned our ethos is, doing good is good for business.
Whatever we do we do a people centric operation. Not only are we going for quality productivity, agriculture standards and profits, we also have a deep sense of caring for our people. so this is part and parcel of a total systems management philosophy that you look into environment ,the people and plucking is the most critical of all operations in a plantation and based on the plucking revenue, quality everything is so critically dependent on this plucking operation and women are dominantly those who contribute to plucking.”
“We thought that we should have a day to recognize them, to say thank you and appreciate their work and this is only the culmination of a series of events.”