World of Hayleys from 'small coconut tree'

Hayleys has been the winner of the Best Corporate Citizen awards presented by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, three years in a row and also has the world at its 'call' through internationally- recognised activated carbon products, hand protection gloves, textiles and transportation.

The humane values that it brings into the business is also reflected through a recent foray into 'ethical teas' where the field-to-shelf production process takes into account the protection the environment, welfare and rights of workers and their families, and the rights of consumers.

But there was something missing. The company logo - the coconut tree - itself reflected just a fraction of the giant strides the Group has made ever since its inception 129 years ago in the port town of Galle as against the massive expansion since then which has made it a truly Sri Lankan multinational.

Recalls Hayleys chairman N.G. Wickremeratne: "There are many sectors of our business - activated carbon, hand protection, textiles and transportation, which deliver excellent quality and absolutely first rate products to global markets."

"Each of these businesses has its own identity and personality. Without detracting from these, we wanted an appropriate means of positioning Hayleys across all of its businesses," he said in a recent interview.

Hayleys is Sri Lanka's biggest multinational conglomerate with businesses in fibre, hand protection, purification products, textiles, agri- inputs, agri- products, plantations, industry inputs, power and energy, transportation, consumer products and resorts, areas in which the Group is renowned, both locally and globally.

Thus came the challenge of transforming the hallowed 'coconut tree' symbol and logo in a re- branding exercise that encompassed the group's entire business and its future direction.

"The purpose of the re- branding was to channel much of what was great in the past into a new expression which is modern and relevant to stakeholders today," Wickremeratne said.

More than to stakeholders outside the Group, there was a need to reinforce in the minds of Hayleys' own employees the Group's core values and what it stands for.

The search for a new identity began with &Brand, the branding specialists, being called in to help the group in conceptualising a new brand and strategic direction. The net result: The coconut tree logo being transformed into 'The World of Hayleys' with the focus on green.

Explained &Brand CEO Ruchi Gunawardene: "What we have been trying to do is to focus the branding in a much bigger context. The success of branding is in trying to make employees understand what the Hayleys brand is all about and how should they communicate this message to the various stakeholders."

&Brand spent a lot of time with the employees, customers, directors and other stakeholders ascertaining what Hayleys meant to them. "What was the single most important thing that brought all of them together? That was what we wanted to find out," Gunawardene said.

Everyone the &Brand team spoke to had a perception that Hayleys is a company that "is wedded in trust." "It was absolutely trustworthy and environmentally conscious ... this was the consensus," the &Brand CEO said, adding that these were the elements that were brought together to create the new logo design.

Gunawardene says Hayleys is one of the 'few truly' multinational groups operating in Sri Lanka because it has marketing and distribution capabilities throughout the world.

"That differentiates itself from many other conglomerates operating here. The other aspect is the diversity of the product all of which is based on adding value to indigenous raw material. The value addition of indigenous raw material and an international network differentiates Hayleys from any other local conglomerate. That clearly sets apart the company from the others," Gunawardene said.

The Hayleys logo has a splash of green which reflects many values of the company - trust to a great extent and being environmentally conscious in adding value to raw material, which in many ways is the core of the Group's varied product base.

To make the Hayleys brand more relevant in contemporary Sri Lanka, &Brand was asked to evolve the brand and leverage its core attributes, expla- ined Michel Nugawela, &Brand's creative director, who worked on the design process after the strategy was worked out.

"The challenge was not only enhancing this well-respected brand's social and cultural status exercise but also preserving the spirit of graphic elements that existing stakeholders would recognise: the colour green-traditionally associated with Hayleys and its agricultural base," said Nugawela, adding that how well the new logo would be received in rural Sri Lanka was equally important in the re-branding exercise.

A sophisticated letter-type designed by internationally-renowned type artist Morris Fuller Benton, and the shift away from a solitary coconut tree to an evocative world of value- or "The World of Hayleys" - was depicted in the brand mark to signal local authenticity and heritage, but also progressiveness, Nugawela said.

"The design is simple but by connecting the brand mark to the benefits Hayleys brings to its customers and the world they operate in shows the breadth of the company," he said.

Hayleys Chairman Wickremeratne, recalling the re-branding process, said it was not merely a change in the logo that was being sought. "It was giving a sharper definition and promise of what has already been present in the company. There is so much in the company that even publicly people acknowledge, but this was not properly defined."

He acknowledges that there is a need to perk up the performance of Hayleys which has many good values.

"We are getting there. These are world class businesses and the heart of Hayleys and the connection between the sectors and Hayleys as the core is emerging." Wickremeratne concedes that it was not easy getting rid of the 'old' (logo) and getting used to the 'new" (logo).

But, he asserts: "When you now look at the coconut tree logo it's difficult to fathom how we managed so long without change. It was difficult at the start to relate to the new logo for it is difficult to change from what one is used to.