Local media reports say that Sri Lanka's Hayleys net profit shot up 471% to 1.8 billion rupees last year, on the previous year, as its core businesses recovered from recession, loss-making sectors turned around and it sold stakes in hotels it owned.

According to Lanka Business Online, a stock exchange filing said Hayleys group, which accounts for 2.3 percent of Sri Lanka’s export income, had sales of 38 billion rupees in the financial year ending March 31, 2010, up 18% on the year before. In the 2008-2009 financial year Hayleys profits fell 31% to 311 million rupees on lower margins and exports as the export-oriented group was hit by the global economic slump, the report said.

According to the report, Hayleys chairman Mohan Pandithage said in a statement that key gloves and activated carbon making businesses "significantly improved" their performances in 2009-10. At the same time the previously loss-making consumer products and fibre businesses made an "impressive turnaround", he said.

The group owns Haleys MGT Knitting Mills, a cotton and synthetic jersey manufacturer and major supplier to top international brands such as Marks & Spencer, Next, Nike, Tesco and Decathlon. The company has a production capacity of 4 million metres of fabric per month at its state-of-the-art plant at Narthupana Estate in the Kalutara District. Haleys MGT is also a key supplier of high quality knitted fabric to the Sri Lankan apparel industry and to export markets.