From stationery to school uniforms

RAMANI KANGARAARACHCHI

A market leader in manufacturing and distributing stationery in Sri Lanka is to venture into school uniforms as well shortly, said Chief Operating Officer of Atlas K.H.K. Nishantha in an interview with Daily News Business.

Atlas Group of Companies include Ceylon Pencil Company, Care Products, and Atlas Plastics and school uniforms will be the latest area.

The company which always had a passion towards children’s education has identified that school uniforms as a niche market as there is a gap to be filled in this area. The students get one set of uniform through the Ministry of Education free of charge but that is not sufficient for the whole year, Nishantha said.

A soft launch for school uniforms was held recently at the Atlas office in Peliyagoda. A student can get a set of uniform at a price of less than Rs. 500 which is a very nominal amount and make it very convenient to parents reducing the time waste on purchasing material and stitching. Nishantha said. The high quality school uniforms will be distributed islandwide through the dealers with the other school products. he said.

So the parents will be able to purchase all exercise books, stationary and uniforms under one roof, he said.

Atlas was founded in 1959 by D.S. Madanayake giving birth to Ceylon Pencil Company Pvt Ltd introducing its specialized maiden product Varsity pencils and gradually diversified into Care Products and Atlas Plastics by 1992. The company introduced new brands of ballpoint pens such Atlas Fancy, Atlas Chooty, Atlas Fast Writer and Professional 2000 pen with luminous barrel.

By 2004 they started manufacturing high quality exercise books with a new format at a reasonable price. And then it introduced colour products and a number of office equipments becoming the dominant player in the market of stationery industry maintaining the confidence of the customers.

Gel pens ,signing pens and glitter gel pens are some of its innovative products.The Company has the latest technology which assures A high quality products and enhanced capacity.

Atlas has won a number of awards such as IOGT 2005 CIMA 2006, ISO 2007. The company has one thousand one hundred workforce today.

Atlas launched an annual CSR project in 2000 titled Sithru which is an all island Art, Essay and handwriting competition under the supervision of Ministry of Education.