Cooperative Insurance, a licensed insurance company, whose major shareholders are the country’s Cooperative Societies, did Sri Lanka proud, when it won the International Quality Summit Award in the Gold Category, at the  International Business Initiative Directions (BID) Quality Convention at the Marriott Marquis, New York on May 26, 2008.

BID is an international firm, which is a leading exponent of Total Quality Management (TQM) and has the distinction of designing the QC100 TQM model, recognized internationally as a pattern model of TQM.

Since the mid 1970s, BID began developing quality award programs based on the QC100 model, which have become the benchmark for recognizing TQM standards world-wide. Awards are presented in three categories : Gold, Diamond and Platinum.

It is thus a singular honour for Cooperative Insurance to win the Gold Award from among scores of firms from over 65 countries. The award ceremony at the world’s premier financial capital was presided over by President, CEO, BID, Jose E Prieto, along with outstanding personalities from the business world and the diplomatic corps in the USA.

Prieto said, “The awarded companies are symbols of commitment to leadership, technology and innovation, which make them models for other companies of their sectors” .

Cooperative Insurance is indeed a model for Sri Lankan insurance companies: as the Company states in its mission statement, “Our mission is to be ever mindful of the needs of our customers and thereby, make “true protection” a way of life via the provision of innovative, yet affordable insurance solutions, which conform to the highest ethical and moral standards”

Chairman, Cooperative Insurance, Lalith A. Peiris, says , “we won this award because we are committed to continuous search for quality, demonstrated by the achievement of ongoing development and innovation applied to solutions which create business results”.

Cooperative Insurance, which began operations as a public limited liability company in 1999, offers Life and other types of General Insurance through 35 branches and 28 service centres island-wide. The Company largely serves the rural sector.

In 2007/08, the Company achieved a rate of growth that was higher than industry average : 36% for Life Insurance, against an industry growth rate of 21% and 40% for General Insurance, against an industry average of 23%. Profits too, in the last financial  year, were the best since inception : Rs.29.62 million for General Insurance and Rs. 37.99 million for Life Insurance , as against Rs.12.6 million and Rs.35.22 million respectively in the previous year.

In keeping with up-to-date service delivery standards, the Company established a 24-hour Call Centre last year. In its quest to provide affordable policies to the average Sri Lankan, Cooperative Insurance plans to widen its service network to 200 by 2011. Says Peiris, The BID TQM Gold Award will prove to our customers, beyond any doubt that, we put our mission statement into practice in everyday business.