Sathis Abeywickrama: A trailblazing success story spanning four decades

Founder and Managing Director of Flexiprint and Print USA Sathis Abeywickrama received the prestigious ‘Packaging Professional of the Year 2020’ award from the Sri Lanka Institute of Packaging. He received this honour at the Sri Lanka Packaging Awards – Lanka Star 2022 held on 3 November at the Galadari Hotel, for his dedicated service to the printing and packaging industry.

At the awards ceremony, Print USA won seven Bronze awards, four Silver awards and four Gold awards while Flexiprint won six Bronze awards, seven Silver awards, four Gold awards and a Platinum trophy as the Overall Winner with the most number of winning entries in the corporate categories.

At the event, Abeywickrama shared his journey as a trailblazing personality who has established his mark in the printing and packaging industry, both locally and globally, as well as his origins, vision and industry achievements spanning over four decades.

“I began my career in 1977/78 as a management trainee in sales and marketing at Aitken Spence Printing soon after my A-Level exam. This was at a time when new tea companies were entering the market and producing value added tea products such as packeted teas and teabags,” he said.

He continued: “I left Aitken Spence to pursue my own path and first worked as a print buyer. Then, I established Print USA with the exposure I got from marketing offset printed packages to the tea industry. My goal was to support value added Sri Lankan products such as tea, rubber, spices and garments through quality printed offset packaging.”

Abeywickrama explained: “Eventually, my customers persuaded me to start producing the most important ingredients for teabags – tags and envelopes. I started Flexiprint in 1994 with the goal of offering locally produced, premium printed tea tags and tea envelopes to the value added tea trade.”

Flexiprint and Print USA: Testament to the founder’s vision and dedicated leadership

He added: “Today, Flexiprint and Print USA have joined hands, and become great catalysts for the tea trade and other value added Sri Lankan products, and are renowned names globally. The two companies now export to the Far East, India, CIS countries, Dubai and the rest of the Middle East, as well as the African continent.”

Abeywickrama explained: “Flexiprint is the current market leader in Sri Lanka for manufacturing packaging necessities for teabags – mainly tea tags and tea envelopes. The company is well established in the Sri Lankan tea market after having served 63 percent of tea manufacturers over the last decade.”

Flexiprint is said to be the largest supplier to Dubai and parts of North Africa. In recent years, the company successfully ventured into the self adhesive label market and printed labels for products in the coconut, seafood, apparel, pharmaceutical and petroleum industries, and some in the FMCG sectors too.

Print USA is leading in the manufacture of packaging requirements for Sri Lankan products, mainly in the tea, rubber and apparel industries, as well as others that do value additions for local products. Both companies have backed their customers with uninterrupted supply even during the pandemic through the dedication of a loyal and efficient workforce.

The organisations also boast of a steady growth rate of over 10 percent per annum despite challenges posed by the global pandemic.

Secrets to remarkable longevity and success within a competitive industry

Abeywickrama commented on how he achieved such remarkable longevity and success, in the highly competitive and dynamic printing and packaging industry.

He elaborated: “Since my trainee days, I have believed in and focussed all my effort on one area of specialisation – printing. I never dreamt of becoming the largest printer but did everything possible to be one of the best value addition providers in printing and packaging for the tea industry.”

Armed with this inspiring vision, he guided both Flexiprint and Print USA over the decades to achieve global excellence. The longstanding and continuously growing trust achieved by both companies as printing and packaging service providers for leading global brands can be traced to his dedicated leadership that ensured only the best for his customers and industry partners.

He added: “As a policy, we don’t settle for second best and assure unparalleled quality standards, which both Print USA and Flexiprint have been known to deliver since inception. With a green work ethic at heart, we consistently offer our valued clients a precise product that guarantees the best productivity.”

This green work ethic lies at the core of both companies. Abeywickrama firmly believes in the principle that a sustainable business will be a successful one. The companies reject all operations that could leave even the smallest environmental footprint.

He concluded: “I am proud to say that together with a highly dedicated team, I have claimed this position today as the best printing and packaging service provider to the tea industry, and established a mark even beyond. This recognition by my peers in the industry is a great honour. I hope to always maintain this position and continuously meet the expectations of our customers in every possible way.”

“With a green work ethic at heart, we consistently offer our valued clients a precise product that guarantees the best productivity”

“I never dreamt of becoming the largest printer but did everything possible to be one of the best value addition providers in printing and packaging for the tea industry”

Telephone 0777 362698  |  Email flexiprint@flexiprint.lk  |  Website www.flexiprint.lk