Brandix Apparel Limited, issuing a statement, affirms that no foreign party –Indian or otherwise– had access to their Minuwagoda facility.

It further says that their Minuwangoda facility does not use any fabric from India nor has it taken in any orders from their facility in India.

The statement acknowledges that several Sri Lankan employees who had been to India and repatriated later had reported for duty. However, the returnees had followed government quarantine and testing protocol upon returning and had not visited the Minuwangoda facility, the apparel company assures.

Further addressing allegation circulating on social media against the brand, the statement concludes reassuring the company’s support for the country’s battle against COVID-19.

Full statement issued by Brandix Apparel Limited:

“Our organisation, Brandix, continues to face the challenge of navigating a COVID-19 crisis at our facility in Minuwangoda. Throughout this process, we will continue to keep you updated and clarify any concerns raised by the public, with the aim of being transparent.

We understand that there have been concerns with regards to foreign nationals working at our facility in Minuwangoda and would like to clarify as follows. We can confirm that no parties from India or any other country have had access to the facility during this period. We would also like to clarify that our facility in Minuwangoda does not use any fabric from India nor has it taken in any orders from our facility in India as well.

With regards to concerns on employees returning to Sri Lanka from India through chartered flights, we can confirm as follows. We operated three chartered flights from Visakhapatnam, India for our Sri Lankan employees working in India and their families, who returned to Sri Lanka. We confirm that they, including their families, followed the Sri Lanka Government protocol for the prevention and control of COVID-19, which includes PCR testing and a 14-day mandatory quarantine at a government regulated quarantine facility, as well as the 14-day self-quarantine process done under the supervision of the respective PHIs. Further to this, it must also be noted that none of these Sri Lankans nor their family members visited the Minuwangoda manufacturing facility.

We have also noted the circulation of a video on social media that alleges that the company has requested employees to come into work, following the identification of the initial COVID-19 positive employee at the facility in Minuwangoda. We have identified that the primary female party is the owner of a hostel, while the two members occupying her hostel and the supervisor being referred to are employed by a third-party cleaning service provider contracted by the Brandix Minuwangoda facility. We confirm that none of these individuals are employees of Brandix.

As an organisation, we rally together to care for the affected employees and their families, whilst endeavouring to minimise the impact on our communities and our nation in a collective effort to emerge from this crisis.”