Business
Hayleys Advantis honours employees for innovation excellence
Hayleys Advantis Limited, the transportation and logistics arm of the Hayleys Group, recently held Advantis Ideastorm Champions League, to recognise the successful implementation of the ingenious ideas which were presented at ‘Advantis Ideastorm’, the ideation programme introduced in 2020.
‘Advantis Ideastorm’ is a platform that encourages employees to generate innovative ideas to enrich existing businesses and introduce new business verticals adjacent to the core businesses under two categories: revenue generation and service optimisation. Under ‘Advantis Ideastorm Champions League’, teams who successfully progressed in implementing their ideas that were submitted during phase one were rewarded based on the level of progress, the value realised, and future potential – both financial and non-financial.
“Advantis Ideastorm serves the dual purpose of driving business excellence through innovation, and rewarding the disruptive thinking of our employees,” said Hayleys Advantis Managing Director Ruwan Waidyaratne said. “It has been exciting to see our teams work together and bring their ideas to life, and the outcomes have been highly encouraging. The Judges were impressed with the quality of the proposals and the strong commitment and enthusiasm displayed in the implementation phase.”
The Board of Directors of Hayleys Advantis, with Dr. Nirmal De Silva, an external consultant of Advantis Ideastorm, who played a vital role in formulating the programme, evaluated the 13 teams who emerged as the finalists of ‘Advantis Ideastorm Champions League’.
“As the leader in the transportation and logistics industry, we strive to maintain excellence through a culture of continuous innovation, which requires us to be disruptive in our thinking,” Hayleys Advantis Chief Strategy Officer and Member of the Group Management Committee Virendra Perera said. He further added, “We encourage innovation and make concerted efforts to incentivise and reward such efforts.”
The Gold Award was won by a team from Advantis 3PL Plus comprising Isuru Jayasooriya, Dharshana Wijemanne, Dayal Sandanayake, Chamika Chathuranga, Chandana Samaraweera, Supun Ranaweera and Sagara Perera. The initiative, which focused on further enhancing the efficiency and reducing customer lead times of one of the Strategic Business Units of the Group, resulted in a substantial reduction of the overall carbon footprint of the operation.
“We take great pleasure and pride in being selected as the overall winners of Advantis Ideastorm Champions League,” said one of the members of the Gold Award winning team. “Our project will be a stepping stone in transitioning from the traditional warehousing model to a future fit fulfilment centre, aligning with the purpose of Advantis; Inspire, Connect and Enrich. This achievement was only possible due to Advantis Ideastorm, which has been proven to be an effective platform to incubate and implement innovative ideas.”
The Silver Award was also won by a team from Advantis 3PL Plus, comprising Gayan Rajapaksha, Malaka Yattigala, Lahiru Udawatta and Kasun Bandara. The Bronze Award was presented to a team from Advantis Ships, comprising Marzook Maazud, Asanka Bodhirathna, Roshan Medonza, Andrew Tan and Lilip Sanjeewa.
Ceylinco Life’s Ambalantota branch agent AIP Manjula has been named one of three global finalists for the prestigious Insurance Agent of the Year award at the 11th Asia Trusted Life Agents & Advisers Awards (ATLAA) 2026.
The recognition places a Sri Lankan insurance professional among the finalists in a regional field spanning South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
Ceylinco Life said the achievement reflected the calibre and customer-focused approach of its agency force, while recognising Manjula’s professionalism and commitment to policyholders.
The award evaluates insurance agents on criteria extending beyond sales performance, including ethical conduct, client service, policy persistency, digital adoption, innovative practices and contributions to the insurance industry and community.
The awards are organised by Asia Advisers Network and Asia Insurance Review, with LIMRA as co-organiser. An independent judging and balloting process is monitored by KPMG as the official scrutineer. The judging panel comprises senior insurance executives, association presidents and industry experts from across the Asia-Pacific region.
CEAT Kelani Holdings (CKH) has retained its National Long-Term Rating of ‘AA+(lka)’ with a Stable Outlook from Fitch Ratings for the sixth consecutive year, reflecting the company’s financial resilience and leading position in Sri Lanka’s pneumatic tyre market.
The ‘AA+(lka)’ rating, the second-highest on Fitch’s national scale, indicates a very strong capacity to meet financial commitments.
Fitch said CKH’s established market leadership and resilient financial profile remained key strengths, while noting its exposure to price-sensitive, cyclical and highly competitive markets.
The Stable Outlook reflects expectations that the company will maintain its market position despite rising input costs and increasing competition from imported tyres, while preserving adequate credit metrics during periods of weaker earnings and higher investment.
Fitch expects CKH’s established brand, extensive dealer network and adaptive pricing strategies to support its market position. Planned production facility upgrades are also expected to improve product quality, particularly in the radial tyre segment.
The rating agency expects near-term pressure on margins from higher raw material and energy costs but said the company’s low leverage and sound liquidity would provide a cushion.
CKH Chairman Chanaka De Silva said the rating reinforced the company’s focus on disciplined financial management, operational adaptability and long-term investment.
SLT-MOBITEL Enterprise, the enterprise services arm of Sri Lanka Telecom PLC, has launched its Premium Cloud service powered by Nutanix, aimed at helping Sri Lankan businesses modernise their IT infrastructure and accelerate digital transformation.
The service was unveiled at the Lanka Tech Summit 2026 held recently at ITC Ratnadipa, Colombo.
The Premium Cloud combines hybrid multi-cloud capabilities with enterprise-grade performance, enabling businesses to run mission-critical workloads, scale cloud deployments and strengthen business continuity through disaster recovery capabilities.
Hosted on SLT-MOBITEL’s Tier III data centre infrastructure, the platform is designed to provide enhanced security, reliability and flexibility while supporting the growing technology requirements of enterprises.
SLT-MOBITEL Enterprise said the platform would also support organisations seeking to adopt AI-ready capabilities and improve the management and performance of IT workloads.
A key feature of the launch was SLT-MOBITEL Enterprise joining the Nutanix Elevate Service Provider Program (NESPP), which the company said made it the first service provider in the region to join the programme.
Powered by Nutanix’s hybrid multicloud platform, the service enables application and data mobility across on-premises environments, public clouds and edge locations.
The company said the partnership combined Nutanix’s cloud technology with SLT-MOBITEL’s local expertise and support, strengthening its multi-cloud portfolio.
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