Innovations

Innovations

Innovation may be synonymous with new technology, but at Sunshine Holding, Innovation has been part of our DNA since as long as half a century ago. Since our inception, innovation combined with our reputation for integrity, has enabled us to contribute as far as to nation building efforts through our diverse businesses.

Latest Technology

  • At Sunshine, we equip our employees with technology they need including handheld devices for field agents and estate associates, customer relationship management dashboards for frontline employees, business intelligence tools and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for our Management Teams; to ensure that our brands stay ahead of competition.
  • We implemented a Group-wide cloud-based platform to centralise key operational data, streamline communications and coordinate decision-making within the Sunshine network.
  • The Group switched to cloud data centres to achieve greater accessibility, mobility, scalability, security, and cost benefits; inn addition to strengthening information security to protect corporate and customer data.
  • Our Agri Business works with two start-ups using drone technology to gather field data which enables us to identify and take necessary action if a field has been left fallow.
  • At Healthguard, we use technology to understand customer behaviour; such as how long a customer spends at the counter to how often they make an unplanned purchase; to make constant changes to better our customer experience.
  • Watawala Plantations implemented iHarvest system; a software focused on enterprise digital transformation, which records everything from the time a crop is harvested to what is available on the field in real-time, as well as attendance of workers with photograph-identification.
  • Watawala Dairy Farm has a fully computerised, state of the art DAIRYMASTER milking parlour system (imported from Ireland) which is capable of monitoring the progress of each animal’s yield and quality of milk produced. The double raw rapid exit milking parlour which can milk 40 cows at a time is the most advanced milking parlour in Sri Lanka with in-built technology to separate all antibiotic, Mastitis and Colostrum milk from bulk milk. Sensors are clipped to the ear of each heifer to measure temperature, activity, resting time, rumination time, feeding behaviour, facilitating better care over the welfare of each cow.

Ground-Breaking Projects

  • “Kalana Mithuru” - Watawala Plantations formulated Village Integration Project that bridges the population gap and works towards improving synergy between villages and estates.
  • Healthguard launched ‘Infinity’, a fully-fledged distribution division to assist local pharmaceutical importers and manufacturers in expanding their reach among retail pharmacy outlets across Sri Lanka. It is the first Distribution-as-a-Service (DaaS) pharmaceutical model to be rolled out by a Sri Lankan healthcare company.

Nation Building Elements & Initiatives

  • The state-of-the-art dairy farm by Watawala Dairy Limited (WDL), a 89% subsidiary of Watawala Plantations, manages a herd of 1,600 dairy cattle and produces around 18,000 litres of fresh milk per day and 540,000 litres per month. Annually, the farm releases 6.5 million litres of milk to the local market, which is 3.5% of the annual Sri Lankan milk production.
  • As under the Total Mixed Ration (TMR) method, maize acts as the main fodder, and the farm requires 40 tons of maize per day to feed the dairy cattle; we have appointed two field officers to manage the maize supply from maize harvesters. Since 2017, we have invested to purchase maize from more than 40 maize suppliers from regions like Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Ampara, Monaragala and Mahiyanganaya, providing vital support to the maize farming community in Sri Lanka under this framework.
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