Printcare Products

Sri Lanka’s Printcare PLC, a firm engaged in printing tea bag tags, envelops, cartons etc. says its Digital media arm will be the one which will provide growth for the company over the next decade.

Company’s Chairman Merril J. Fernando, who is the founder of the Dilmah tea on his review made to Printcare’s 2011/2012 annual report said, the firm’s digital media operations is small and a nascent but an exciting part of the firm.

“This division is currently developing some innovative products and services. I hope to report interesting developments next year”, reveals Fernando.

Meanwhile, Printcare’s sales in Tea tags & Envelopes division has suffered during the year under review owing to the level of turmoil in some Middle Eastern countries.

“Civil unrest in and sanctions imposed on some, seriously affected our customers’ operations” added Fernando.

Despite the drop in the above segment, the firm’s Carton Division has delivered encouraging results boosted by growth in export sales.

However, Fernando says the company’s Security Printing Division, which focuses mostly on pre-paid telephone cards, lottery tickets and promotional games, is still under-performing unfortunately.

“Being the only company in Sri Lanka equipped to deliver high quality lottery tickets, our efforts to win the local tender continue unabated. There is every indication that this situation will change soon” disclosed Fernando.

He says, the company has firmly established it as the principal supplier of high quality telecom prepaid cards in the face of invasive competition offering unsustainable prices and relying on less than ideal manufacturing processes in an effort to win market share.

In terms of financial performance, Printcare’s turnover during the year 2011/2012 has gone down to Rs. 3.249 billion compared to Rs. 3.446 billion achieved in the previous year.

The firm, which is listed in the Colombo bourse also has seen its Profit before Tax declining to Rs. 203 million from Rs. 259.1 million achieved in the previous year.

“While this is below the previous year, it is still the second best performance by your company since its inception” says Fernando.

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