A celebration of talent on an extraordinary scale filled the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium to capacity recently when employees of Brandix witnessed the crowning of the best singers, dancers and announcers among themselves at the grand finale of the Group’s annual talent competition.

A dazzling exhibition of aesthetic skills on the scale of some of the most popular local reality television talent shows demonstrated the depth of non-work-related talent stirred and nurtured by Brandix as part of the Group’s ‘Rasadiya Mangalya’ (Mercury Festival) to inspire associates to be the best they can be in multiple aspects.

Conducted by Brandix every year across the Group’s factories in Sri Lanka, the three competitions saw the four finalists from 250 that competed in the preliminary rounds of the ‘Rasadiya Gee Tharuwa’ (Singing Star) competition, six troupes of dancers shortlisted from the 18 teams that participated in the preliminary rounds of the ‘Rasadiya Narthana Tharu’ (Dancing Stars) contest and the three finalists selected from 60 that vied for the ‘Rasadiya Nivedana Tharu’ (Announcing Star) prize performing on stage before panels of celebrity judges.

At the end of an evening of high quality entertainment watched by 5,000 Brandix associates, the coveted title of Brandix ‘Rasadiya Gee Tharuwa’ for 2017 was won by Sanjeewa Pushpakumara of Brandix Casualwear, Ratmalana, with Nimesh Chathuranga of Brandix Casualwear, Seeduwa, Sanath Indika of Brandix Essentials, Koggala and Ishara Sewwandi of Brandix Fast Fashion, Welisara taking second, third and fourth place respectively.

The Brandix ‘Rasadiya Narthana Tharu’ title was won by the dance troupe of Brandix Fast Fashion, Avissawella, followed by Brandix Casualwear, Rideegama, Brandix Essentials, Koggala and Brandix Lingerie, Wathupitiwala.

The Brandix Rasadiya Nivedana Tharu  a new competition introduced this year  was won by H. G. Ajith Priyantha of Brandix Athleisure, Polonnaruwa, with Samith Rangana Fernando of Brandix Casualwear, Ratmalana and G. P. Eranga Premakumara of Teejay Lanka PLC, Avissawella, being adjudged first and second runners-up respectively.

As in previous years, the finals of the three competitions were judged by professional artistes of repute. The judges for the Brandix Rasadiya Gee Tharuwa final were Nirosha Virajini, Keerthi Pasqual and Chandrasena Hettiarachchi; the judges for the Narthana Tharu final Rajini Selvanayagam, Pradeepa Ariyawansa and Channa Wijewardana and for the Nivedana Tharu, Harendra Jayalal, Kusum Peiris and Rajini Raj Mohan.

The Brandix Group has announced the launch of a four-month ‘Blood Drive’ at factories across Sri Lanka to mark the milestone 10th anniversary of the Group’s annual contribution as a corporate blood donor to the National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS).

Recognized as the largest corporate donor of blood in Sri Lanka for the past seven years consecutively, the Group has donated a cumulative 24,513 units of blood to the NBTS over the past decade, with the campaign of 2016-17 resulting in the collection of 4,090 units of blood, the highest volume donated in a single year.

The 2017-18 Brandix Blood Drive commenced at Brandix Athleisure, Polonnaruwa and Brandix Fast Fashion, Mirigama and was followed by a collection at the Group’s Head Office in Colombo recently. Over the next four months, teams from the NTBS will visit Brandix manufacturing locations on designated days to collect blood from volunteers among the associates employed at them.

“It is heartening see that the enthusiasm of our associates and their commitment to the cause has not wavered over the 10 years of this annual blood drive,” commented Ishan Dantanarayana, Chief People Officer of the Brandix Group. “Their civic consciousness is steadfast and continues to inspire us to expand this initiative each year.”

Beside the annual recognition bestowed on Brandix by NBTS for the past seven years for being the largest corporate blood donor in the country, the Group was also honoured with a plaque in 2013, in acknowledgement of an aggregate 10,000 pints of blood donated voluntarily by its employees by end 2012.

According to the NTBS, donations of this scale over a significant time period are necessary to meet the organisation’s requirements. By being geographically widespread, the Brandix campaign increases supplies of blood in many areas, including those that do not usually receive donations of significant volume compared with areas like Colombo. Brandix’s blood donation campaigns are also extra significant as they are conducted on weekdays instead of the general norm of weekends. This is particularly helpful in sustaining blood platelets, which have a lifespan of five days, for use during the course of the week.

Seeks to unlock growth opportunities in the fast-evolving Sportswear and Athleisure domains

Sri Lanka’s leading exporter Brandix has announced plans to launch a joint venture with the global synthetic materials manufacturer Best Pacific of Hong Kong to produce synthetic fabric and webbing in Sri Lanka with specific focus on warp knit synthetic fabric.

An agreement signed by the two companies in Colombo this week envisages the construction of a manufacturing facility in Pannala for the manufacture of synthetic fabric and webbing. The joint venture will be managed by Best Pacific, a leading one-stop solutions provider in the synthetic space.

Commenting on the proposed joint venture, Brandix CEO Mr Ashroff Omar said: “This joint venture will propel Brandix’s drive towards delivering the most innovative and inspiring products to the consumer.”

The Best Pacific Group has established long-term and close collaboration with customers of leading brands such as Marks & Spencer, Spanx, Triumph, Victoria’s Secret, Wacoal, Aimer, Chantelle, Embry Form and Maniform. With its strong innovation and product development capabilities, the Group not only manufactures synthetic materials for these brands, but also jointly develops new materials and products in order to start new market trends for their products.

Sri Lanka’s Exporter of the Year, Brandix is the pioneer of the concept of “total solutions” in the local apparel industry and has been ranked the country’s most valuable export brand in Brand Finance’s ranking of Sri Lanka’s leading brands in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

A group of 181 Brandix associates recently completed Gap Inc.’s Personal Advancement & Career Enhancement (P.A.C.E.) programme for female workers in the apparel industry.

The programme provides workers with foundational skills, technical training and support to help them advance in the workplace and in their personal lives. Three separate graduation ceremonies have been organised to recognise the achievement.

The third such batch to graduate in the past five years, the group included 29 associates from Brandix Fast Fashion I, Mirigama, 16 from Brandix Fast Fashion II, Mirigama, 41 from Brandix Fast Fashion, Minuwangoda, 33 from Brandix Essentials, Koggala, and 62 from Brandix Essentials, Rambukkana.

The P.A.C.E. programme that produced these graduates recorded an impressive retention rate of 87 per cent this year. To date, 464 Brandix associates have completed the course, the company said.

Significantly, the P.A.C.E. programme for these associates was conducted by Brandix’s own internal trainers, some of who had previously graduated from the same course.

“Gap Inc.’s P.A.C.E. programme is designed to inspire and help female employees gain the skills and confidence they need to advance at work and in life, Anusha Alles, Head of CSR & Corporate Communications at Brandix said. “P.A.C.E. graduates have progressed well in their careers and contributed more to their workplaces, their peers and their families.”

Three P.A.C.E. graduates have been promoted to Group Leader and two as Technicians at Brandix Essentials; while two have been promoted as Trainee Mechanics, two as Technicians, and another two have received staff promotions at Brandix Fast Fashion, Ms Alles disclosed.

These success stories are of M. K. S. Dilhani and Niluka Priyadarshani from Brandix Essentials, Koggala who began the P.A.C.E. course as Team Leaders and were promoted as Group Leaders ten months later; W. G. J. K. Ranwala and W. M. D. S. Wickramasinghe from Brandix Essentials, Rambukkana who began the course as Team Leaders and were promoted to Group Leader and Trainee Mechanic respectively eleven months later; S. D. Shanika Viduwanthi Dissanayaka and S. M. N. Rosani from Brandix Fast Fashion II, Mirigama who began the course as Team Leader and Group Leader and were promoted as Trainee Mechanic and Technician respectively ten months later; and W. B. C. Priyadarshani Wijesinghe from Brandix Fast Fashion I, Mirigama who began the course as Group Leader and was promoted to Technician ten months later.

The course comprises of eight modules of life skills education including communication, problem solving & decision making, time & stress management, water, sanitation & hygiene, financial literacy, legal literacy & social entitlement, general & reproductive health and execution excellence.>

Launched in 2007, Gap Inc. operates the P.A.C.E. programme in 16 countries including India, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, and has trained more than 65,000 women. Research shows P.A.C.E. graduates are more productive, have lower rates of absenteeism and are promoted faster than factory workers who do not participate in the programme.

In addition to the P.A.C.E. programme, Brandix has also graduated 35 female mechanics that completed on-going in-house training courses on sewing machine maintenance and repair in yet another example of the Group’s commitment to the empowerment of female employees.

The honour was bestowed on Mr Fernando at the 2017 Global Shared Services Conclave held in New Delhi recently.

In its felicitation, Shared Services Forum stated that Mr Fernando was recognised for pioneering financial shared servicing in India and for his creativity in leading global Shared Services and enterprise-wide transformation, delivering value and impact to business, industry and society. The Forum noted that “in his most recent position as Executive Vice President, Global Business Services (GBS) of American Express, he was responsible for all internal servicing of this $32 billion Payments and Services Company with a presence in over 130 markets.”

“This organisation, which he built from the ground up, today delivers all financial, procurement, real estate, human resources and business transformation support across the entire American Express enterprise. His pioneering work has sown the seeds of innovation and excellence for many Shared Services organisations,” SSF said.

In his acceptance message, Mr Fernando said that setting up of Shared Services in an organisation can be done only with uncompromising grit and integrity. He recognised the footprints of all those professionals and leaders who have shaped the Shared Services Industry to what it is today, and declared that “Shared Services are pivotal to transformation and winning in the market place.”

Priyan Fernando was appointed a non-executive Director of the Brandix Group in 2011, and succeeded Deshamanya Ken Balendra as Chairman of the Group in May 2013, upon the latter’s retirement.