Financial Times

Blue chip to build new school in traditional coir yarn belt
An enduring 127-year relationship between a rural community and a blue chip corporate will take tangible shape for a new generation when the Hayleys Group builds a new school for 500 children in Kathaluwa, Ahangama, an area devastated by December's tsunami.

The conglomerate, according to its own statement, is shifting gear in the biggest humanitarian operation it has ever managed, as it moves into phase II of its corporate tsunami disaster recovery effort. The primary focus of this second phase is the village of Kathaluwa, approximately 20 kilometres from where Hayleys Group founder Charles P. Hayley set up his business, Chas. P. Hayley and Company, in Galle in 1878. For much of the century that followed, generations of southerners in Kathaluwa and the surrounding villages have pummeled tough coconut husks by hand to extract the coir that Hayleys added value to and exported.

The methods have changed, but Kathaluwa, in the traditional coir yarn spinning belt, remains linked by economy and history to the diversified conglomerate that grew out of the business of the pioneering Englishman. And, like the people of the village, Chas P. Hayley and Co. Ltd., also suffered losses in the tsunami, with damages estimated at Rs 70 million.

Unlike Kathaluwa however, the company's losses were fully covered by insurance. Kathaluwa's G. V. S. De Silva Primary School was in the path of the raging waves and suffered extensive damage. It is to be relocated to a new site on higher ground, where a complete new school has to be built from scratch. The Hayleys Group has pledged to build and equip a modern educational facility which will bear witness to its historic ties with the area and its people. The conglomerate has pledged to spend more than Rs 58 million on the project from funds donated by its overseas business partners and well-wishers, employees and group companies. These donations have totaled Rs 29 million to date and the Hayleys Group has matched all donations with an equal commitment, doubling the size of its relief fund to Rs 58 million.

"Our history began in the south," says Hayleys Chairman Raján Yatawara who has also worked in the company's Galle office. "We feel it is most appropriate that the rehabilitation phase of our efforts should benefit the Galle region in particular." The project will encompass the building of 15 classrooms, two computer rooms with 10 computers each, the construction and equipping of a laboratory, a library, assembly hall, aesthetics hall, the principal's office, administration office, teachers' meeting room, playground, children's park and toilets, with the required utilities such as water and power supply and access roads.

The Hayleys group is also focusing attention on helping the people of the area resume their livelihood. Three group companies, Chas P. Hayley & Co., Haymat Ltd. and Hayleys Exports Ltd. which together take up a significant proportion of the coir yarn produced in the area, have distributed 100 coir yarn machines to operators who lost theirs in the tsunami. They have also donated 12.5 tons of mixed fibre to 500 people, with which they can commence work. Hayleys has in the past also helped contract producers of brown twine in the Galle area, providing them with 100 motorised twine machines.

Simultaneously, the Group is winding down Phase I of its disaster recovery effort, which concentrated on providing immediate relief to the survivors of the tsunami. This included the adoption of two survivor camps in Galle and
Kalmunai, which were supplied exclusively by the group for one month with food, water, clothing, sanitary needs, school books, footwear and toys. At peak occupancy, the two camps accommodated more than 850 displaced people, with the camp in Galle receiving an additional 100 visitors a day for meals. The group provided some support to a camp in Mirissa before the camps in Galle and Kalmunai were adopted. The operation was so large and time consuming that the group set aside a complete warehouse to store the relief goods and vehicles to transport them to the camps. There was hands-on involvement by group employees who volunteered, whose efforts were coordinated by a special Tsunami Disaster Relief Team set up by the Group. Major General (retired) Anton Wijendra was employed by Hayleys exclusively to spearhead this operation. He will also oversee the construction of the new school in Kathaluwa.

"It was a gigantic undertaking and everybody chipped in," Yatawara adds, citing the example of Balaji Shipping of UK, which transported 28 container loads of goods from the Persian Gulf free of charge. The local transport of these goods was handled by Clarion Shipping, a subsidiary of the Hayleys Group, while Stolt Nielsen, a principal of Maritime Shipping permitted the group to use its Tank Containers to carry out deliveries of fresh water to camps. Many other group companies and their overseas partners contributed in numerous ways, he said. Overseas partners' contributions included 345 cases of milk powder from Bayer (India) and substantial quantities of medicines from that company and from Gujarat Reclaim Rubber, both principals of Hayleys Industrial Solutions. Much of these contributions are being channeled into the government's relief effort through the appropriate authorities.

Back to Business