Leading Sri Lankan food manufacturer unifies payroll and 24/7 HR self-service across island-wide operations in just 3.5 months

Challenge

Pyramid Wilmar (Private) Limited is one of Sri Lanka's largest food manufacturing and marketing companies, built as a joint venture with Singapore-headquartered Wilmar International, Asia's leading agribusiness group. Behind household brands like Fortune and Masterline, its edible oils and fats business serves B2B, consumer, institutional and HoReCa customers nationwide, with operations spanning refinery and manufacturing plants, corporate offices, and a sales force covering the entire island.

• Fragmented payroll ecosystem: Executive compensation was managed through external partnerships, while plant operations and other divisions used different specialized systems.
• Distributed workforce access: Sales teams covered the entire island, creating the need for mobile-first HR access beyond traditional office-hour support.
• Paper-based HR processes: Pyramid Wilmar needed to move from manual workflows to digital processes that matched the expectations of a modern workforce.
• Limited people visibility: Leadership needed better analytics to track personnel deployment across manufacturing units and sales territories.
• Central HR dependency: Plant heads, department heads and supervisors needed more independence in managing rosters and shifts.

PeoplesHR Solution

Pyramid Wilmar chose PeoplesHR to consolidate HR and payroll onto one unified platform, with data migration managed in line with Sri Lanka's personal data protection requirements and organizational structures mapped around main and sub-cost centers.

• Unified payroll: Previously separate payroll systems became one source of truth, with auto-generated finance reports and streamlined bank processing. The first bulk salary run for all 670 employees processed flawlessly.
• Mobile-first self-service: Mobile pay slips and a single app gave field, office and plant employees access to HR information anytime, regardless of shift or location.
• Kiosks on the factory floor: Kiosk terminals enabled plant workers to independently check overtime and leave information, supporting a more paperless employee experience.
• People analytics and autonomy: Leadership gained real-time visibility across refinery, PMG, laboratory and sales territories, while plant, department and supervisor heads gained more independence in managing rosters and shifts.

Results

The rollout reached 90 to 95% completion in just three to three-and-a-half months, a major acceleration compared with similar projects that typically take a full year. The impact was felt immediately — starting with payroll.

"Our first bulk salary processing for 670 employees executed flawlessly, providing immediate confidence in our new capabilities. Our employees, whether in remote sales territories, corporate offices, or manufacturing facilities, now have 24/7 access to their HR information through mobile apps and kiosks."