Acme Printing rolls into Africa, Gulf

Ravi LADDUWAHETTY

Acme Printing and Packaging PLC, Sri Lanka’s only Aluminium Foil Rolling Mill, will shortly be exporting its flagship product-foil based flexible packaging products to Africa, Saudi Arabia and Dubai.

“The company has ramped up skill levels to meet international printing and packaging standards and we have employed a new team including expatriates who have intricate knowledge of those markets and we will be leveraging on those contacts,” Acme Printing and Packaging Chairman Dinal Peiris told Daily News Business yesterday.

Acme has the competitive advantage for securing export markets, along with the right resource personnel is the state of the art machinery that the company has in its Piliyandala factory that has the production capability to manufacture a wide array of packaging products for a diverse array of industries. “We will get our act together and that will be the time that we will be ready to talk to buyers there,” he said.

It has in its local market portfolio of clients Unilever, Nestle and SmithKline and Beecham along with the flagship local brands-Munchee and Maliban and Acme has the ability to provide innovative packaging solutions while reducing their overheads. A brand new facility such as this, would easily cost an investor over US $ 30 million, he said.

One of the core strategies in its revamped plan is the invitation of industry leaders and top rung professionals to the Board such as Singer and NDB Chairman Hemaka Amarasuriya, James Finlay Chairman Kumar Jayasuriya and Commercial Bank Deputy Chairman Dinesh Weerakkody who will take the company to the next level of growth.

Meanwhile, Chairman Peiris, in his 2010/2011 annual report to shareholders has said that the company had discovered that the financial statements of the company had been misstated which led to the Board conducting a thorough investigation by an expert as well as the auditors which resulted in several changes in the management and that the financial statements have been restated on the advise of the auditors-Ernst and Young, which has been appointed as the internal auditor as well.

Peiris has also told shareholders that the Rs. 245 million which has been raised through a Rights Issue, has been used to settle debts and also to provide working capital.