Hayleys accounts for approximately 5% of Sri Lanka's export income, and 4.6% of the country's tea and 4.1% of its rubber production.

[4] The company operates over 16 business sectors: eco-solutions, hand protection, purification, agriculture, consumer and retail, leisure, textile manufacturing, construction materials, plantations, industrial solutions, power and energy, transportation and logistics, BPO, tea exports, projects and engineering, and investments and services.

Hayleys comprises over 180 business units and subsidiaries, twelve of which are publicly listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange.

P. Hayley & Co., on 10 January 1878, exporting local products including coir, cinnamon and citronella oil and importing goods such as British claret.

A period of innovation followed with the establishment of Haycarb Ltd to produce activated carbon from coconut shell charcoal, a pioneering value-added export.

2003 also saw the first overseas plant setup by Dipped Products Ltd.[9] 2006 saw Hayleys adopt a new visual identity, replacing its former logo of 50 years.

[27] Hayleys and its associates have forged successful partnerships with Mercedes-Benz, TATA International, Dystar, Symrise, Bayer Cropscience, Philips Lighting, Polymer Latex, Volvo, Fujifilm, P&G, Shimadzu, FedEx and Gillette.

Its main offices are located in and around the premises; however other manufacturing, agricultural, marketing, and production bases are geographically spread around the country and throughout five different continents.

[31] The single largest investment in the 140-plus year history of Hayleys (and the largest acquisition of a public listed company at the time) was the 10.8 billion rupee controlling stake of Singer Sri Lanka in 2017,[32] followed by the buying over of the five-star Ceylon Continental Hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka (now known as The Kingsbury) in 2010.

[33] The firm brought fame and recognition to the country by winning a European Foundation for Management Development Award for the INSEAD-produced case study featuring the company, and winning the USAID Global Development Alliance Award for Sri Lanka for fostering commercial agriculture in Sri Lanka's Eastern Province.