Acme Printing and Packaging Ltd. has returned to profitability in the year ended March 31, 1998, and the company's chairman, Mr. R.L. Juriansz, has assured shareholders that it would strive to achieve its high profit levels of the past within a short period.

"You would be happy to note that, not only has the company now regained all of its lost business, but it has also substantially widened its customer base by developing new products,'' Juriansz has said.

New products now account for nearly 40% of Acme's turnover, the chairman said. Their strategy of product diversification and new product development would be aggressively pursued, he promised.

The year under review saw the company posting a pre-tax profit of Rs. 10.12 million against a loss of Rs. 11.94 million a year earlier. Due to carry forward tax losses from the previous two financial years, no tax liability lies for the year under review and the directors have recommended a modest 5% dividend to shareholders.

Juriansz said that the company had bought a 5-acre block at Piliyandala to build a new factory complex. The construction tender was awarded in February and the work is progressing satisfactorily, he said. They expected the building to be ready by March next year.

The move into the new factory will however take several months longer as production machinery has to be relocated without affecting customers. Juriansz said this would be a difficult task but they hoped to accomplish it through very careful planning of production and relocation operations.

Acme which has done well with its 6-colour flexographic printer has now decided to get an 8-colour central impression flexographic printing press which would enable them to reach new markets.

"We are confident that this acquisition will contribute significantly to the turnover and profitability of the company,'' the chairman said. "The company also has plans to invest in several additional items of equipment during the next two years, to further diversify our product range in order to improve competitiveness and keep pace with the technological developments taking place in industry.''

Acme is trying to ensure that the major part of their turnover in any year would come off products developed in the preceding two or three years.

The company is also looking for ISO 9002 certification. The time taken to translate work instruction with technical data into Sinhalese had taken longer than expected. Though ISO 9000 has not been achieved yet, implementation of systems under this regime had led to all round improvements in plant operations and product quality, Juriansz said.

With several new entrants to the field of flexible packaging, competition is stiffening. Also, S.E. Asian currency devaluations have made imports from the region more competitive and made the local market more price sensitive than before.

Increased liberalisation of imports over the years had seen local agents of foreign suppliers aggressively seeking a bigger market share. Indian manufacturers too are working hard for a better slice of the Lankan market.

"We are confident however that we will be able to effectively counter these threats by appropriate development strategies, in line with the expected continuous growth for flexible packaging,'' Juriansz said.

The directors of the company are Messrs. R.L. Juriansz (chairman), A.R Munasinghe, S.T. Nagendra, H.L. de Witt, J.S. Mather, R.D. Chandaria and N.M. Chandaria.