Aitken Spence PLC (; ) is a Sri Lankan blue chip conglomerate with operations in South Asia, Middle East, Africa and Pacific. Listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange since 1983, it has major interests in hotels, travel, maritime services and logistics. The group also has a significant presence in printing, plantation, power generation, financial services, IT, Business Process Outsourcing/Knowledge Process Outsourcing sector, elevator agency services, garments, and property development.

Aitken Spence has been recognised by Forbes as one of the most successful publicly traded companies with annual sales under US$1 billion outside of United States, for three consecutive years. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, Aitken Spence was adjudged the top winner of the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award presented by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. The company is one of the first signatories to the UN's Global Compact in Sri Lanka. In February 2025, Stasshani Jayawardena was appointed as the chairperson of Aitken Spence.

History

Whilst the roots of Aitken Spence can be dated back to Wilson & Archer Partnership of the 1830s in the early British Colonial Ceylon, the company began to take its current form after the signing of a formal partnership agreement between Thomas Clark and Patrick Gordon Spence—Scottish merchants and shipping agents in Galle—on 1 September 1868, wherein Clark Spence & Co. was established. Clark Spence & Co.'s trading segment at this stage included exports of natural vein graphite (plumbago), gems, hides, sappan wood, ebony, coffee, coconut oil, coir, arrack, and citronella oil to the United Kingdom, continental Europe, the United States and Australia; and imports of Burmese rice, and coal for steamship bunkers.

On 5 April 1871, Patrick Gordon Spence secured Clark Spence & Co. as the sole agent of Lloyd's of London in Ceylon. In order to service the agency for the Lloyd's of London for the Port of Colombo, Clark Spence & Co. partnered with Britton, Aitken & Co. to open a branch office in Colombo. On New Year's Day, 1873, E.C. Britton opted out of the Britton, Aitken & Co. partnership, resulting in Patrick Gordon Spence, Edward Aitken and S.R. Aitken coming together to form Aitken Spence & Co. to manage the operations in Colombo, whilst Clark Spence & Co. continued in partnership to operate in Galle. In 1876, Aitken Spence & Co. obtained the Lloyd's agency from Clark Spence & Co. Aitken Spence had also obtained the local agency of the Morgan Crucible Company for trading in plumbago. As Colombo became the commercial capital of Sri Lanka, Aitken Spence & Co became more prominent and subsequently its partner company, Clark Spence & Co. originally based in Galle, became a subsidiary of Aitken Spence & Co.

By the 1880s, Aitken Spence had also secured the shipping agencies Koninklijke Rotterdamsche Lloyd and Stoomvaart Maatschappij Nederland for Ceylon. The company moved into plantations sector as an agency house in the early 1900s and with the onset of the Great Depression, began to withdraw from its trading business. In 1918, Aitken Spence purchased the Freudenberg Building in Colombo, and made it its company headquarters having renamed the building the Lloyds Building. As a pioneer in port operations, Aitken Spence was entrusted in coordinating the Operations of Colombo Port during the Second World War.

Aitken Spence became a Private Company in 1952. In its centenary year, 1968, it appointed its first Sri Lankan Chairman, E.L. Van Langenberg. By 1971, as Sri Lanka was preparing to end British dominion and declare itself a republic, the company became a wholly Sri Lankan owned entity. In 1972, it began to offer shares to its executives, thereby broad basing its ownership. The company eventually moved on from this model and in 1983 offered its shares to the general public on the Colombo Stock Exchange with an issued share capital of Rs. 51 million.

During the early 1960s and early 1970s, Insurance and Plantations sectors—which were core business segments of Aitken Spence, where the company had been well established at the time—were nationalized. However, the Group's marine insurance segment (including its Lloyd's Agency) continued to operate as it did not fall within the purview of nationalization.

Despite the setbacks from nationalization, in realizing the then government's thrust to boost tourism, Aitken Spence launched its tourism segment in 1972 with investments in its first hotel (Neptune Hotel in Beruwala, Sri Lanka opened in 1974). The company then entered into Aviation in 1974 (as general sales agent for Singapore Airlines in Sri Lanka). In consolidating its travel agency business that had begun with the launch of Aitken Spence Hotels in 1974, Aitken Spence set up Aitken Spence Travels in 1977 as inbound and outbound tour operators in Sri Lanka and as agents for Eurail and Britrail. Tourism is now a core business segment of Aitken Spence.

With Sri Lanka adopting open market economic policies focused on export led growth in 1977, Aitken Spence forayed further into new business segments: container and allied services in 1979; garments and apparel in 1979; international courier services with TNT in 1981; and elevators in 1989 as agent of the Otis Elevator Company. With the insurance sector being deregulated in the 1980s, the Group played a pivotal role in the resurgence of private sector insurance as a proponent of the National Insurance Corporation and Union Assurance Ltd, stakes in which Aitken Spence subsequently divested. Aitken Spence reentered Plantations sector, when the sector was reprivatized in 1992, through its stake in Udapussellawa Plantation PLC that was later divested.

In response to the Power Crisis in Sri Lanka in 1996, Aitken Spence began to explore investment opportunities in power generation sector, with first two power plants coming online in 2002. The Group also maintained container vessel operations, with acquisition of five ships in a joint venture with Ceyline Group in 2003, which it later divested in 2008. In 2010, in continuing its partnership with Ceyline Group, Aitken Spence invested in CINEC, Sri Lanka's largest private higher education institution. In 2004, Aitken Spence Travels partnered with TUI Group of Germany to form a joint venture that is the largest leisure, travel and tourism company in the world.

Aitken Spence was the first Sri Lankan resort operator to embark on overseas resort operations having acquired Bathala Island Resort of Maldives in 1993. In 1996, Aitken Spence entered Bangladesh through Aitken Spence Cargo with its shipping services. A decade later, in 2006, Aitken Spence entered the Indian hospitality sector, having secured management contracts for five hotel properties in India. On the same year, the company broke new ground by becoming the first Sri Lankan company to venture into port efficiency management outside of Sri Lanka, when it undertook to improve efficiency of ports in the African continent. The company increased its global presence even further by obtaining the management of four hotel properties in Oman in 2007. In 2013, Aitken Spence announced its proposed venture into Fiji to manage the Ports of Suva and Lautoka in a public private partnership with the Government of Fiji. The Group has expressed interest to further diversify its investments in Fiji, venturing into hospitality, power and printing sectors. Currently, the company has operations in eight countries (Sri Lanka, Maldives, Bangladesh, India, South Africa, Oman, Fiji and Myanmar), spanning several continents with 13,000 employees.

Governance structure Aitken Spence is governed by the chairman and the board of directors and is managed by the Group Management Committee.

Chairman and Board of Directors The current chairman of Aitken Spence is Harry Jayawardena. He is the founder director and current chairman/managing director of the Stassen Group of Companies – a diversified group in exports and import trade, the chairman of Lanka Milk Foods (CWE) PLC, Browns Beach Hotels PLC, Balangoda Plantations PLC, Madulsima Plantations PLC, Melstacorp PLC, Ambewela Livestock Company Ltd, Lanka Bell Ltd and also the current chairman of the Distilleries Company of Sri Lanka (DCSL) PLC.

The current panel of board directors includes Parakrama Dissanayake, deputy chairman/managing director; and executive directors Rohan Fernando, and Stasshani Jayawardena; and the non-executive directors Rajan Brito, G.C. Wickremasinghe, Charles Gomez, Niranjan Deva Aditya and Rajan Asirwatham.

Group Management Committee

Group Management Committee is headed by Parakrama Dissanayke. The other members of the Group Management Committee are Rohan Fernando, Stasshani Jayawardena, Nilanthi Sivapragasam, Rohan Pandithakorralage, Nimmi Guneratne, Susith Jayawickrama, Dinesh Mendis, Prasanna Karunathilake, Leel Wickremarachchi, Nalin Jayasundera, Iqram Cuttilan, Janaka Gunawardena, Jerome Brohier, Vasantha Kudaliyanage, Calude Jayantha Fernando and Chaminda Hidurangala

Hotels

Aitken Spence Hotels owns and operates 22 hotels and resorts across Sri Lanka, Maldives, Oman and India. Currently it has the largest hotel sector portfolio in the country and a room inventory (owned and managed) of over 2,800 rooms of capacity. Its portfolio includes beach resorts and water villas, Ayurveda holiday resorts, and eco and culture resorts in the 3-5 star category.

Brands of Aitken Spence Hotels include 'Heritance', 'Adaaran', 'Turyaa' and 'Aitken Spence Hotels and Resorts'.

Sri Lanka Aitken Spence is currently one of the largest resort operators in Sri Lanka. Also, is the largest international resort chain in the Maldives.

Heritance Hotels and Resorts

Heritance Ayurveda

Aitken Spence Group first ventured into hospitality sector in 1974, with the opening of Neptune Hotel—designed by Deshamanya Geoffrey Bawa—in Beruwala, Sri Lanka. In July 2011, the Group rebranded the hotel as Heritance Ayurveda Maha Gedara after a major renovation wherein the hotel was converted to an Ayurveda wellness resort.

Heritance Ahungalla

Heritance Ahungalla, formerly known as Triton, is Sri Lanka's first five-star beach resort—launched in 1981 in Ahungalla, a town in the southern coastal belt of Sri Lanka. Originally designed by Deshamanya Geoffrey Bawa, the 152-roomed 5-star resort was relaunched under the Heritance brand in June 2006 after a US$13 million refurbishment.

Heritance Kandalama

Heritance Kandalama, the flagship hotel of Aitken Spence, is located in Kandalama, Dambulla in proximity to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites— Sigiriya and Dambulla Cave Temple. The hotel is built into a natural rock outcrop within a jungle setting and overlooks the Kandalama Reservoir. Designed by Deshamanya Geoffrey Bawa,

Heritance Tea Factory

Heritance Tea Factory is a concept hotel wherein a 61-year-old dilapidated tea factory has been remodelled and conserved as a hotel. Located in Heathersett Estate (25 acre tea estate), Kandapola in the Nuwara Eliya district, the 5 star resort is considered to be the highest elevated (6,800 ft above sea level) luxury hotel in Sri Lanka. Conceptualized by G. C. Wickremasinghe, a former chairman and current board member of Aitken Spence, and designed by Nihal Bodhinayake, the hotel came to operation in 1996.

Heritance Negombo

Heritance Negombo (formally known as Browns Beach Hotel) was rebranded as Heritance Negombo.

Turyaa Kalutara

Turyaa Kalutara is a 200-room property in Waskaduwa, Kalutara, which was formerly known as "The Sands by Aitken Spence Hotels", "Ramada Kalutara" and "Golden Sun". The hotel which initially held 112 rooms was relaunched as Turyaa Kalutara after an addition of a new wing to the hotel in November 2015. Turyaa Kalutara is a beach-front resort with 200 rooms, equipped with private balconies.

Aitken Spence Hotels and Resorts