JF PACKAGING
Q: How has the company progressed in recent years?
A: From its humble beginnings in 1987 as a family business to becoming one of Sri Lanka’s premier packaging companies, JF Packaging has come a long way in its three decades of operations.
By adopting cutting-edge technology and adhering to the highest international standards of certification, the company has a proven track record of successful products and customer relationships.
Q: JF Packaging has won numerous accolades in the recent past – could you elaborate on these?
A: The past two years have been a time of transformation for JF Packaging and we’re now the most awarded packaging company in Sri Lanka. This year, we won the highest number of awards at the Lanka Star Awards 2018 organised by the Sri Lanka Institute of Packaging.
In December last year, we became the only Sri Lankan company ever to win the highest number of accolades at the AsiaStar Awards organised by the Asian Packaging Federation.
Q: Could you elaborate on the company’s successes at the Lanka Star Awards 2018?
A: JF Packaging bagged two Gold awards for its oxygen scavenger active packaging system for packing prawn – a special award – and for reducing aluminium foil consumption by 84 percent in lids for yoghurt, which represented a President’s award.
We also won four Silver awards for replacing polyester (PET) film based laminates with polyethylene (PE) based laminates for detergent powder, introducing a cost-effective sustainable material combination to the detergent family, 11 layer co-extruded sustainable film for thermos trays in fish and meat packs for domestic and export markets, and replacement of nylon or LDPE laminated vacuum bags with high barrier PE-EVOH single film based vacuum bags for the fish export market.
The two Bronze awards we won were for healthy twistable toffee wrapper material used in candies and removing MPET from shampoo sachet material by using an ALOX PET structure.
We were presented with the Platinum award for winning the most number of Lanka Star Gold, Silver and Bronze awards, which totals 11 accolades at this year’s event.
Q: Do you emphasise quality and how is this maintained in all operations?
A: We are equipped and able to produce and supply packaging solutions in line with international standards. Armed with a trained and experienced workforce, and an ultramodern factory in Ekala, JF Packaging is certified under ISO 22000:2005, ISO 9001:2015, FSSC 22000 and HACCP.
Our technology enables us to be quality oriented. JF Packaging adopts a technologically evolving manufacturing process that strives to offer better output at a higher speed with less waste. In addition, technologies are brought in and introduced by us, for quality control within manufacturing lines and post-production.
Q: How do you build sustainability into your processes?
A: Sri Lanka is environmentally oriented and JF Packaging is passionate about being green in our operations. We conduct constant research on how the company can develop more eco-friendly products.
At the moment, we’re capable of producing biodegradable and decomposable packaging; and the focus for the near future is to work on recyclable materials – which is trending with some of our larger-scale customers – to bring about innovative solutions.
We have also taken the lead in producing liquid detergent packaging – a first in the region. JF Packaging has already worked on reducing its core polythene usage and provided improved packaging to customers.
Q: And how does your staff add value to operations?
A: Along with our investments in R&D, we are capitalising on our human resources and their expertise. JF Packaging has a technically sound team headed by our Technical Director who has vast experience in this industry.
We can proudly credit our progress to the company’s technical and research teams, and all employees – we value our staff and their contribution to the organisation above all else.
Q: And what are the organisation’s future plans?
A: Our focus for the next year is on recyclable materials so as to be more environmentally-friendly. We will also invest in more customer relationships especially in the food, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and food export markets.
Q: What is your overall philosophy for JF Packaging?
A: For us, it is not about running with the rest of the industry but differentiating ourselves and offering customers better solutions. This competitive edge is gained through investing in extensive research on how best to provide innovative, advantageous, improved and technologically advanced products to the market. Our many awards endorse our commitment to have cutting-edge products.
JF Packaging has come a long way since its inception and our efforts to present customers with high quality packaging solutions for the last 30 years are paying off – this is a testament to the overall philosophy that governs us.
As a premier packaging solutions provider and the most awarded packaging company in Sri Lanka, we will continue to be driven by innovation, technology and stringent adherence to the highest international standards of certification.
