Associates of Brandix put on a sparkling exhibition of live singing and dancing evocative of the scale and grandeur of reality television talent shows recently, when Sri Lanka’s top exporter conducted the finals of its annual talent search encompassing the Group’s factories in Sri Lanka.

The Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium throbbed to the beat of pulsating music and roar of 5,000 enthusiastic fans as finalists at the singing and dancing competitions vied for the titles of Brandix Gee Tharuwa (Brandix Singing Star) and Brandix Narthana Tharu (Brandix Dancing Stars) respectively.

One of the highlights of the Rasadiya Mangalya (Mercury Festival) organised by Brandix every year, the two competitions saw six troupes of dancers shortlisted from the 15 teams that competed in the preliminary rounds performing at the final of the dancing competition, while the four best singers chosen from 300 who entered the singing contest sang for the title of Gee Tharuwa.

When the inspiring performances came to an end, the Brandix Rasadiya Narthana Tharu title was won by the dance troupe of Brandix Fast Fashion 1, Avissawella, which beat the dancers of Brandix Essentials Koggala and Brandix Essentials Batticaloa, who were adjudged first and second runners up respectively.

The coveted title of Brandix Rasadiya Gee Tharuwa for 2016 was won by Hashan Darshana of the Brandix Green Plant, Seeduwa, while the runners up were Chaminda Pushpakumara of Textured Jersey Lanka PLC Avissawella, Sashi Mekala of Brandix Essentials Koggala and Dinesh Nalaka of Brandix Fast Fashion 1, Mirigama.

As in previous years, the finals of the two competitions were judged by professional artistes of repute. The judges for the Brandix Rasadiya Gee Tharuwa final were Nirosha Wirajini, Keerthi Pasqual and Dumal Warnakulasooriya, while the judges for the Narthana Tharu final were Kevin Nugara, Rajini Selvanayagam, Pradeepa Ariyawansa and Hemal Ranasinghe.

The highest employment provider in Sri Lanka’s export sector according to the Export Development Board, Brandix employs more than 48,000 people in Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh. The Group won 11 awards at the Presidential Export Awards earlier this month, and was ranked Sri Lanka’s most valuable export brand in Brand Finance’s 2016 ranking of the country’s leading brands. Brandix is the pioneer of the concept of total solutions in Sri Lanka’s apparel sector and is a preferred supplier to some of the top retail brands in the US and Europe.

Inspired performances by teams from companies in the Brandix Group have resulted in Sri Lanka’s top apparel exporter sending four teams to the six finals of the Mercantile Volleyball Association which are to be played on 25th and 27th November.

Reiterating their dominance of the preliminary rounds of the 2016 tournament, these teams will represent Brandix at the Men’s and Women’s Super League finals, the Men’s Championship, and the Men’s A Division final.

Two other Brandix teams won third place in the Women’s Super League and in the A Division during the semi-finals of this year’s tournament, reflecting the Group’s extensive engagement with the sport.

The Brandix teams vying for Mercantile Volleyball’s highest honours at the 2016 finals are Brandix Fast Fashion – Minuwangoda (Men’s Super League), Brandix Green Plant  Seeduwa (Women’s Super League), Brandix Athleisure Polonnaruwa (Men’s Championship) and Brandix Athleisure / Katunayake (Men’s A Division).

Teams from Brandix placed third in their respective tournaments were Brandix Fast Fashion 2  Mirigama (Women’s Super League) and Brandix Fast Fashion / Avissawella (Women’s A Division).

In all, 88 teams representing mercantile sector entities competed in the preliminary rounds of this year’s tournament.

Sri Lanka’s Exporter of the Year since 2012 and the highest employment provider in the country’s export industry, Brandix conducts its own annual volleyball tournament for the Rasadiya Kusalanaya (Mercury Trophy), which is considered the largest volleyball tournament organised by a private company in the country.

Pictured here are the Brandix teams that will play in the 2016 Men’s and Women’s Super League finals of the Mercantile Volleyball Association tournament.

The Brandix Group was declared the sole winner for HR Excellence in South Asia (excluding India), at the 2016 HR Awards of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the world’s largest professional association devoted to the sphere.

Sri Lanka’s top ranked exporter and the largest employer in the country’s export sector was presented the award at the SHRM India Annual Conference and Exposition in New Delhi on 29th and 30th September.

The award in the international category ‘ the only one awarded to the whole of South Asia ‘ recognises organisations outside India that have successfully designed and implemented excellent people management practices and systems in human resources. The award, accompanied by a Certificate of Achievement for ‘Excellence in HR ‘ South Asia’ was accepted on behalf of the Group by Mr Ishan Dantanarayana, Chief People Officer at Brandix.

“People are at the heart of our business and are fundamental to our credo of ‘inspired solutions,’ Mr Dantanarayana said. “We invest immensely in the development of skills and potential of our associates, and are therefore delighted that our commitment to excellence in HR has been recognised by an organisation of the credibility and calibre of the SHRM.”

The award presented to Brandix evaluates multiple facets of the Group’s HR practices across a wide array of functionalities.

Ranked the highest employment provider in Sri Lanka’s export industry from 2012 up to the latest awards presented for 2015 by the Export Development Board (EDB), Brandix received the Gold award and the award for Best HR Practices in the ‘Leadership and Key Talent Management’ category at the last National HRM Awards held in 2014 and which are presented bi-annually. In 2012 too, the Group won Gold at the National HRM awards.

The Brandix Group’s approach to human resources management has also received worldwide attention through the best-selling book ‘Work Rules!’ (Insights from Inside Google) by Laszlo Bock, Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google Inc., USA. In it, the author devotes part of page 9 and much of page 10 to describe how the Brandix Group inspires a large female workforce by telling employees to ‘come as you are and harness your full potential,’ and lists some of the employee development and welfare initiatives implemented by the Group.

Furthermore, Brandix had the distinction two years ago, of becoming the first company in the region to be featured on the cover of ‘HR Magazine’ ‘ the most widely read and respected human resources publication in the world, with a circulation of more than 275,000 in 174 countries. Titled ‘Woven into the Community,’ the story described how HR practices extend beyond employees to also cover the society and go hand in hand at Brandix with the Group’s principal CSR philosophy of providing water to the needy.

Sri Lanka’s Exporter of the Year since 2012, Brandix has made inspiration central to everything it does. The pioneer of the concept of total solutions in the country’s apparel sector, and a preferred supplier to some of the top retail brands in the US and Europe, Brandix is also a benchmark and international award winner for eco-friendly manufacture and commitment to environmental best practices.

The Brandix Group has paid tribute to an inspirational trailblazer by naming its Head Office at Rheinland Place, Colombo 3, after the legendary business leader Ken Balendra, the Group’s first Chairman, at a simple ceremony held on Monday, 28th November 2016.

Commissioned in April 2015, the seven-storey building will henceforth be known as the Ken Balendra Building in recognition of the leadership role Mr Balendra played in the evolution and growth of Brandix into Sri Lanka’s top ranked exporter.

“The power of inspiration is central to our credo and has defined and propelled the business for many years,” Brandix Group CEO Ashroff Omar said. “Ken Balendra exemplified this during his 10-year term as our Chairman.”

During his decade of leadership at Brandix, Mr. Balendra was instrumental in the adoption by the company of the corporate and reporting structures and the values of a public listed company, and establishing a high degree of transparency. He also provided visionary leadership for the expansion and aggressive growth of the company.

Brandix also credits Mr Balendra with instilling the best practices of boardroom governance, board discipline and direction with precise delegation, building team spirit, enhancing decision-making capabilities and advocating benchmarking with leading conglomerates.

Brandix’s Head Office is the first commercial building in Sri Lanka to be awarded the Green Mark ” Platinum certification by the Ceylon Institute of Builders (CIOB), a certification developed by the Building Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore to assess Green buildings.

A project by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to monitor the water quality in the Kelani River Basin as a prelude to a larger initiative for the Basin’s management and conservation, has received funding support from Brandix, Sri Lanka’s top-ranked exporter.

Brandix will finance the project and collaborate with the IUCN to set up a mechanism for online monitoring of discharge into the river at the investment promotion zones at Seethawaka and Biyagama, as part of its commitment to the ‘Kelani River Multi-Stakeholder Partnership’ (KRMP) under which government, non-government and private sector entities will work together with communities in the Kelani River Basin.

The first year of the project will encompass an assessment of the water quality in 71 minor watersheds in the Kelani River Basin and identification of sources of pollution.

A Donor Agreement ratified by Brandix and the IUCN in Colombo describes the project as ‘an enabling activity to set the foundation for the management and conservation of the Kelani River Basin that is threatened with agricultural, industrial, domestic and urban pollution.’

The specific objectives of the project are to strengthen water quality monitoring in the Kelani River Basin; develop knowledge products to facilitate environment management and conservation; identify key stakeholder groups at minor-watershed level to initiate implementing best practices; and promote the participation of more stakeholder entities in the KRMP initiative.

As part of its undertaking, the IUCN will in addition to providing the defined project deliverables and outputs, provide the community with training material on best practices for source water protection and minor-watershed planning for water safety as well as a report on the initial implementation of the minor-watershed conservation and management in a selected number of pilot minor-watersheds.

‘As a business group that has made water the central theme of its commitment to the community, we have a deep appreciation of the importance of watershed management and conservation,’ said Mr Iresha Somarathna, the Brandix Group’s Head of Environmental Engineering. ‘Supporting the IUCN with a project as important as this fits perfectly with our CSR agenda, and will also be a great learning experience for us.’

‘This initiative will accelerate the timely implementation of the Kelani River Multi-Stakeholder Partnership approach, as a breakthrough initiative for water quality protection while ensuring the sustainability of industry related livelihoods. It will also provide an up scalable model for the National Pavithra Ganga or Clean River Programme,’ said Dr Ananda Mallawatantri, the IUCN Country Representative.

The KRMP initiative hopes to engage with several local universities to develop and run the water quality testing and analysis facilities proposed under the project.

More than 5,700 children received gifts of stationery, other school requisites and a school bag each for the new school year under a new employee welfare initiative launched by Brandix, Sri Lanka’s top ranked exporter.

The ‘Ran Daru Thilina’ programme benefitted children from the nursery age to Grade 5, with each child receiving a pack containing items needed for his or her academic year.

The generous gesture encompassed the children of 4,969 Brandix associates employed at 24 manufacturing locations in Sri Lanka. Brandix also has a scholarship scheme titled ‘Ran Daru Scholarships’ under which financial assistance is extended to Grade 5 children of associates.

“Our associates are the life blood of the enterprise, and the wellbeing of their families is a fundamental consideration in all employee-related engagements at Brandix,” said Anusha Alles, Head of CSR and Corporate Communications of the Brandix Group. “The cost of buying stationery and other supplies for school-going children can be a burden on many families. We are happy to be able to help alleviate that burden for a significant number.”

Among the items in each pack were exercise books, drawing books, colouring pencils, standard pencils, pencil sharpeners, erasers, bottles of glue and rulers. The packs of younger children also included modelling clay, scissors and crayons.

The beneficiary families are scattered across the country, in areas as far flung as Batticaloa, Giritale, Polonnaruwa, Nivithigala, Koggala, Rambukkana, Kahawatte and Pannala to name a few.

A similar programme has also been implemented by Brandix Apparel India, which is located within the Brandix India Apparel City in Andhra Pradesh.

— Continues its role as Official Apparel Solutions Partner of J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions in New York —

The Brandix Group returned to the global sporting stage last week when Sri Lanka’s top exporter partnered with the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions in New York for the fourth consecutive year as a Bronze Sponsor and Official Apparel Solutions Partner of the world’s largest spectator squash event. As part of its sponsorship of this Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Series event, Brandix presented custom-designed and branded players’ shirts to the players in the Men’s and Women’s draws.

The 2017 J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions (ToC) celebrated its 20th year of presenting the world’s best squash players in competition at Grand Central Terminal’s Vanderbilt Hall on a specially-constructed four-walled glass court. With 64-player women’s and men’s main draws, and 32 player qualifying draws to determine the eight main draw qualifying spots, the ToC featured 128 of the world’s top-ranking squash players competing in front of sell-out crowds throughout tournament week.

The Tournament of Champions traces its distinguished international squash lineage back to 1930 when it was first staged as the “U.S. Professional.” In the late 70s it became the World Professional Squash Championships and then the Tournament of Champions in 1993. The list of titleholders is a veritable “who’s who” of squash through the years. The tournament has been played in 17 different cities, but is now closely identified with its majestic Grand Central Terminal venue where it was first presented in 1995.