Hayleys Retail Holdings Ltd has selected the supply chain software company Blue Yonder to build its planned grocery retail business from the ground up, in an agreement the two companies say makes Hayleys Blue Yonder’s first retail customer in Sri Lanka.
The companies announced the partnership in a joint statement, EconomyNext reported. Hayleys Retail plans to open a number of stores “in the near future” to serve consumers across the country.
What the deal covers
The unusual feature of the arrangement is its timing: the technology decision has been taken before the first store opens, rather than retrofitted onto an existing chain.
According to the joint statement carried by the Daily FT and Lanka Business Online, Hayleys Retail chose the platform for three stated reasons: a single data foundation connecting merchandising, replenishment and shelf-space decisions; AI agents intended to detect operational problems before they spread; and a cloud-based system the company says can scale from its first stores to a national network without being replaced.
The rollout begins with Blue Yonder Merchandise Operations, giving the retailer one record for item, supplier, cost and pricing data across stores, regions and channels. As the business grows, Blue Yonder Allocation and Replenishment will apply machine-learning forecasting to align inventory with demand, including seasonal peaks.
What the companies said
“Service excellence has been at the heart of every Hayleys business for 148 years, and our entry into supermarket retail is about bringing that same commitment to quality and reliability closer to everyday Sri Lankan consumers,” said Mohan Pandithage, Chairman and Chief Executive of Hayleys PLC. “With Blue Yonder, our teams will have AI-driven insight to deliver a seamless, consistent shopping experience across every store.”
Antonio Boccalandro, Blue Yonder’s President for Asia-Pacific, said few retailers get to choose their operating model before their first store opens. “Hayleys Retail is choosing one where AI is the foundation rather than an add-on — connected data and agentic AI built into core merchandising operations, and planning that learns as the business grows,” he said.
The Daily FT reports the agreement was signed by Pandithage and Blue Yonder Chief Revenue Officer Corey Tollefson, with Hayleys Retail Chief Executive Bruno Jousselin and Boccalandro also present.
The group behind it
Hayleys is Sri Lanka’s highest-ranked listed company and a multinational conglomerate accounting for roughly 5 percent of the country’s export income, with operations across 17 business sectors on five continents. The filings say the group is drawing on its existing strengths in manufacturing, logistics and services as it enters large-scale supermarket retail.
Not reported
None of the three filings gives a store count, an opening date, a location, or the value of the agreement — the announcement covers the technology platform rather than the chain’s commercial plan. Readers should note that figures circulating in search results for a “100-outlet” Hayleys supermarket chain come from earlier, separate announcements, not from this week’s statement, and are not asserted here.
All three accounts derive from the same joint corporate statement rather than from independent reporting, so the corroboration here confirms the announcement’s wording rather than testing its claims. Lanka Business Online published it on 6 November and the Daily FT describes it as having been announced “last week”; EconomyNext carried it on Monday.