Sri Lanka Business News | Online edition of Daily News

Commercial Bank's credit and shopping debit cardholders can celebrate Avurudu in grand style following attractive discounts negotiated by the Bank with leading clothing and footwear retailers.

The Bank's cardholders will receive a 20 percent discount when they shop at any of the outlets of Spring and Summer, Romafour, Hameedias, Adidas, Signature, Raymond and DSI (at DSI the minimum purchase value for the discount is Rs 1000) and 15 percent off at the Cool Planet, Fashion Bug and New Sriyani Dress Point.

These discounts will be applicable for purchases from 1 to 12 April, the Bank said.

All credit cards of Mastercard and Visa, and shopping debit cards of Mastercard and VISA issued by Commercial Bank will be eligible to receive these discounts.

The Bank's Card Centre Head Lakshman Perera said, "This value addition will provide a compelling reason for our cardholders to use Commercial bank cards for shopping. The Bank has always introduced special discounts during festive seasons to help customers save on their purchases, at times when their expenses are high." The savings generated by using these cards during the promotion will be much higher than the one percent stamp duty applicable to credit purchases, the Bank said.

The Commercial Bank has zero percent easy payment schemes for Credit Card holders and annual discount offers for Credit and Shopping Debit Cardholders at selected merchant outlets.

The Commercial Bank's operations in Sri Lanka consist of 196 branches and Supermarket Banking counters and an ATM network of 413 terminals.

Lassana Flora obtains ISO

Lassana Flora recently obtained the prestigious ISO 9001:2008 certification, thus not only becoming Sri Lanka's first, but also South Asia's first florist company to be thus recognized.

Since its launch in 1998, Lassana Flora has revolutionised Sri Lanka's floral industry with its professional management and carefully developed systems. These have not only helped Lassana Flora to provide creative floral solutions at very competitive prices, but have also built its reputation as the most reliable florist in the country.

Founded by Dr Lasantha Malavige Lassana Flora is known for its cost effective, innovative and elegant floral designs among the Sri Lankans. Lassana Flora operates through four main branches at the Galle Face Hotel, Nawala, Negombo and Kandy, with a state-of-the-art work shop and cool room facilities at its Homagama stores complex.

"One of our biggest strengths is our well experienced and professional staff. Our 12 years of experience in this industry has made us market leader in wedding flowers and floral solutions for corporate events. Constantly introducing innovative designs and different floral solutions, we are proud to be the floral solutions provider for most of the leading international events happening in Sri Lanka", Managing Director and Chairman Dr Malavige said.

Lassana Flora specializes in Poruwa, Church, Hindu and Muslim weddings and enjoys the reputation as being the only wedding florist company in Sri Lanka to use a fleet of freezer trucks to deliver flowers.

Maliban wins gold

Maliban Biscuit Manufactories reinforced its commitment to protecting the consumer's environment in its processes, while emphasizing on high quality and innovation, when the company received the Gold Award at Geo Responsibility Awards 2011. Maliban became the only biscuit company in Sri Lanka to have won this prestigious award.

The Geo Responsibility Awards, an initiative of Geocycle, the professional waste management services provider, seek to recognise industries that practise best environment management systems. A unit of Holcim Lanka Limited, the awards were presented in collaboration with the Environment Ministry. Quality Assurance and Research Development Assistance General Manager Warna Fernando said, "While achieving this Gold Award we believe that we have been recognized of our performance and commitment towards managing the environment in a responsible manner which gives real proposition to the Maliban theme 'Inspired by goodness'.

"Maliban decided to dispose materials through Geocycle, which cannot be re-used, re-cycled or reformed at the company's premises. However, identified material were presented to another source to be re-used, recycled or reformed to expand their shelf life. We have included waste reduction as a key objective considering materials and energy," she said.

Building its practices on the '5R principles', the company adopts the concepts of Reduce, Re-use, Recycle, Refuse and Reform in its activities. In moving into the future, Maliban has identified the concept of 'refuse' as a key aspect in its 'Environment Road Map', through which the company aims to avoid the purchase of environmentally burdensome materials where possible and use optimum materials including in raw and packing. This will enable Maliban to 4achieve environment benefits by minimizing the harmful effect on the environment, as well as cost benefits.

Over the years, Maliban has gained wide recognition for its environmental practices. In 2010 the company received the National Cleaner Production Silver Award, while in 2009, it was awarded the Certificate of Merit (recognition of Excellence in Cleaner Production Practices). In 2006, Maliban received the ISO 14000 Environment Management System Certification of the Sri Lanka Standard Institute.

MageGedara relocates main office

The main office of 'MageGedara' was opened at a very convenient location close to the Gampaha Hospital. 'MageGedara' constructs attractive and spacious houses for Sri Lankan clients residing here and abroad, according to their requirements, and adhering to very high quality standards.

For over ten years the 'MageGedara' Company has constructed houses according to the wishes of its customers using the latest construction technology, to transform their dreams into reality. Before construction commences, the site is inspected by experts, designed by virtual reality 3D technology and according the tenets of 'Vaasthu' house designing art, to give house owners a truly beautiful dream house. All materials used in the building of the house are shown to the client and only after his approval is obtained are they used in construction.

'MageGedara' has also introduced a new concept in economical house construction. The full construction cost is divided into 12 equal parts and payment could be made in 12 installments making this exercise so affordable and inexpensive to customers. The total construction is overlooked by civil engineers and other construction experts, and the installation of electric fittings, bathroom fixtures and plumbing comes with a workmanship guarantee. The construction process can be inspected at any time and at any stage by customers, and those overseas, will be sent photographs of each stage of construction every week by e-mail. At the conclusion of the construction, a powerpoint presentation of the whole construction process will be presented to the customer.

'MageGedara' Managing Director Mahanama Wagasenevi, said "With the relocation of our main office to a new and spacious premises we are now in a position to offer a much better service to customers. We also intend to introduce a whole host of new services to customers. I would also like to mention that most of the Sri Lankans who are abroad and for whom we have constructed houses have been so pleased by our trustfulness and transparency that they have recommended us to their friends abroad. Finally we base our success on constructing houses according to the needs, desires and designs of customers and not to suit our own fancies".

SLT unveils special Avurudu offers

Valid from March 25 to April 30:

Telecom (SLT), the nation's number one integrated telecommunications service provider unveiled a gamut of amazing offers for the Avurudu season for SLT Megaline connections, SLT Citylink CDMA connections, SLT Broadband connections and PEO TV. The special SLT Avurudu offer is valid from March 25 until April 30.

SLT Megaline (wired connections)

A 10 percent discount will be up for grabs during SLT's Avurudu promotion for all new SLT Megaline customers, and is valid for all four packages: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum.

SLT Citylink (wireless CDMA connection)

All new SLT Citylink customers during the Avurudu promotional period will receive a 20 percent discount on postpaid, pre-paid and CitylinkNet connections. Customers registering within the promotional period will also gain additional benefits such as having the rental for the first month on Citylink's melody service waived off.

SLT Citylink offers a range of pre-paid and post-paid options, with different service configurations to suit individual customer preferences (e.g. - Voice only or Data and Voice as well as internet facilities through the SLT Citylink Net phone).

SLT Broadband

New SLT broadband connections will be offered 50 percent off on registration charges.

Migrations from dial-up internet to broadband connections will also be offered free-of-charge during the SLT Avurudu promotion.

SLT Broadband provides high speed internet access through ten different packages designed to suit the varying needs of customers. These include Entree, Home, Home Plus, Office, Office Plus, Office 1IP, Xcite, Xcel, Xcel Plus and Xcel 1lp.

PEO TV

New and existing SLT fixed line customers will be able to sign up for PEO TV connections, which will be provided at 50 percent off on the connection fee.

Delmege wins once again

Architects 2011 :

Once again Delmege Interiors bagged the award for the most innovative trade stall at the Architects 2011 Trade Exhibition that was held at the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Convention Centre. The stall which was innovatively designed, had on display a wide range of products including power tools and home appliances from Black and Decker and Dewalt, these agencies having been held by Delmege since 1994.

Delmege has consistently been winning awards at the annual Architects Exhibition, since 1991 for excellence in trade stall presentation for many years.

Designed around the theme 'the finishing touch', the stall utilized a multitude of materials from carpets to laminated and bamboo flooring, vinyl flooring, office chairs, window coverings, hot water pipes and fittings, water heaters and cladding.

A special item on display was a 50 year old Black and Decker drill, which despite being half a century, was in excellent working condition, a testament to the superiority of the brand.

Delmege Interiors which is one of Sri Lanka's largest suppliers of specialist interior as well as building products, is a member of the highly respected and diversified Delmege Forsyth Group of Companies. As one of the most reputed interior decor firms in Sri Lanka today, Delmege Interiors represents several internationally reputed brands such as Brintons, Shaw, Interface, Gerflor, Unilin, Hunter Douglas, Hufcor, Dux and Black and Decker to name just a few.

The company imports a wide range of products that include carpets, carpet tiles, vinyl flooring, industrial flooring, laminated flooring, office furniture, ceilings, operable partitions, wall coverings, window blinds and polybutylene pipes and fittings, water heaters etc.

Complementing their extensive product range is the total quality promise and superior after sales service that Delmege is synonymous with.

SHL products now available locally

Intercontinental Institute of Human Resource Management (IIHRM) - probably the most high-tech service provider in human resource tools and 'next generation' compatible learning products that achieves breakthrough bottom-line results now in Sri Lanka, partnered with one of the world's leaders in objective assessment - SHL Group (UK). SHL Group, one of is the world's leading consultancies specializing in the objective assessment and development of people at work was established in 1977, has extensive professional and technical expertise in the design of objective assessment procedures and is widely acknowledged as a world leader in the implementation of competency based assessment and development initiatives. "The duo has made Psychometric on-line assessment and development tools affordable to the corporate world in Sri Lanka at a fraction of the cost with our partnership with IIHRM and we are just a call away," said SHL Managing Director Y V L Pandit.