A young man named Tikiri Banda Lewis Goonaratne who came to Colombo without his parents' consent wanted to start a small business.This young entrepreneur had a basic knowledge in printing, and he was determined to start a business in publishing of books.

He rented out a house located at Bandarawatta in Gampaha, named and subsequently famed as "Hansagiri Walawwa", from where he started with a few employees to print books. This was the humble beginning of Rathna Books.At that same era a Miss Malkanthi Ranasinghe who had written her second novel named "Amaraneeya Adaraya" was looking for a good printing press to publish her book. She came with her farther Mr. James Ranasinghe to meet this young publisher, where a whole new chapter began to unfold and paved the foundation for building the empire of "Rathna Poth Prakasakayo" with the marriage of the publisher and the writer.

In 1958 Mr. Goonaratne opened a new bookshop at 513, Maradana Road, Colombo 10, which was a luxurious business area at that time with easy access to Colombo for the book-loving patrons. It was him who introduced the term "Prakasakayo", meaning "publishers" to the printing industry in Sri Lanka.From the very beginning Rathna Poth Prakasakayo represented the cultural and social environment of a truly Sri Lankan society and had encapsulated at its core a complementing vision and a mission.

Reached the zenith of publishing education & higher-education related material. Celebrated icons across professions in many generations since 1960's have made use of books & reading material published by RATHNA to be the beacons they rose-up to be, and have always been grateful, indeed the most valuable accolade to earn from the learned public.

Following the untimely death of the founder in 1995, the year 1996 marked another milestone for "Rathna Poth Prakasakayo" and Rathna Printers when it put up its state-of-the-art (at the time) offset printing press, strategically located in a highly commercialized property at 87, Highlevel Road, Colombo 5, fully-equipped to printing school curriculum text books distributed by the government of Si Lanka to 4Mn+ students across the country.

In 1998 RATHNA Printers shifted to a four-storeyed spacious building with a beautiful landscape facing Pannipitiya Road, at No. 962 in Battaramulla and this new printing facility was well equipped with some of the most most sophisticated printing machinery at the, some of them being the very firsts-in-the-country, and new machines kept on adding up, until there was no more space.

RATHNA exercise book series with the full range of composition, activity and drawing books to fulfill the needs of school-children of all ages was manufactured in 1999, with a rich fleet of machinery, again some being firsts in the country in book-making

Identifying the potential and the void prevailed in the local market for a world-class books series that match and fit to the international standards and benchmarks in book-making, RATHNA Printers in 2000, after a comprehensive study and assessment, invested in a portfolio of new material, machinery and talent to produce the book that completely changed the local industryProMate.

Considering the space requirements for back then and also for time to come, the land and property at Athurugiriya was acquired and the gamechanging journey was thus initiated, which synthesized a gazing revolution that changed everything thereafter, for the better.

LAUNCH OF PROMATE

Premium quality composition books and notepads, matching international standards under the ProMate brand and its website officially unveiled in a gala event at the Waters Edge, Battaramulla.

NATIONAL DISTRIBUTION

Appointed Delmege Forsyth & Co. LTD., as the National Distributor to take our products to every nook & corner of the country. Subsequently went into own regional distribution channels.

PRINTXCEL PVT LTD

A fully owned member company of RATHNA Printers was incorporated with high aims of consolidating local and global footing in the domain of printing

1ST OVERSEAS EXHIBITION

PRINTXCEL participated in its first overseas exhibition at the renowned Paperworld in Frankfurt, Germany

LAUNCH OF MANGO

A youthful brand to provide full-scale stationery products to the new generation was unveiled with a pen at an award-winning event at the Colombo Book Fair.

1ST EXPORT BUSINESS

With a kick-start to an accelerated foreign trade business, the first shipment of global composition book, MeadⓇ was shipped.

THE PEN FACTORY

Highly sophisticated and state-of-the-art pens & writing equipment manufacturing plant commissioned.

PACKAGING FACTORY

Venturing into Commercial and B2B Business, a fully-fledged box-board packaging solutions providing arm was commissioned..

PROMATE E-BOARD

Keeping with the futuristic orientation of the Group, a 20-years old pioneer company in the business domain was acquired under PRINTXCEL Group, aiming at providing technological products and infrastructure for digital home, school and office.

PAPER SACKS

Expanding the horizons in the B2B segment, a fully automatic line with capability to produce the lion-share of the country's cement bag consumption was commissioned.

NATURALLY CEYLON

In a bid to secure a strong footing in the agri and organic produce markets in both the local and global domains, this company was set up to capitalize on the already available green-properties and their harvests, with ambitious plans to expand.

PRINTWARE FZC LLC

PRINTWARE FZC LLC., is a the UAE footprint of PRINTXCEL PVT LTD in Sri Lanka, a 70 years old veteran printer and stationery supplies company in the South Asian island nation. The Sri Lankan company has strong ties with top-tier clientele from across the globe for books and stationery products manufacturing and the UAE arm has an ambitious game-plan afoot, to amplify and upscale the market presence, both here at its new home in the UAE, and across frontiers.