About Us
The Story of The Master Bookmaker
We are a largely diversified and one of the fastest-growing group of companies in Sri Lanka, with strong footing in a multitude of business domains and dimensions. We are one of the largest manufacturers of paper & board-based products for consumer business, commercial business, trading, and export business.
Blessed with and inspired by a deep-rooted history of well over half a century in the domain of printing and publishing, we have over the years inculcated to ourselves the formula of building a respected brand by offering innovative, next-gen oriented and seamlessly unparalleled customer-product experience at competitive prices.
We are also a futuristic, dynamic, and trendsetting team of passionate individuals, striving to achieve consistent and sustainable excellence by delivering novel, superior quality solutions to all our customer segments.
ABOUT PROMATE
The new generation of stationary is here! ProMate™ offers you dynamic, stylish and
vibrant solutions to suit every stationary need. Revolutionizing the approach to
stationary, ProMate™ products are manufactured under stringent quality standards.
ProMate™ brings you an unparalleled selection of premium quality Notebooks, CR Books and
Spiral Pads that guarantee satisfaction and deliver premium quality.
At ProMate™, our forte has always been to deliver inspiring solutions to suit current market trends. We are dedicated and passionate about providing high-end stationery solutions to meet demanding customer needs. Our focus on delivering products with enhanced contemporary designs and impeccable quality standards ensure that we are at the forefront of stationery development and delivery, thus setting new standards within the industry. We are a fast-growing stationer, a printer & a packaging solutions provider based in Sri Lanka, engaged in both the consumer and commercial business domains. Blessed and inspired with a deep-rooted history of well over half a century in the domain of printing and stationery, we have over the years inculcated to ourselves the formula of building a respected brand by offering unparalleled customer experience at affordable and competitive prices.
We are a futuristic, dynamic, and trend-setting team of passionate individuals, striving to achieve consistent and sustainable excellence by delivering innovative, superior quality stationery and printing solutions to all our customer segments.
Associate Brands
RATHNA®
Our founding brand is RATHNA® and derives through the name of the Group’s Late Founder
Chairman, Mr. M. L. Gunaratne way back in 1958. Rathna carries a deep-rooted heritage of
compiling and publishing the back then school textbooks in all three languages, Sinhala,
English and Tamil for the school curriculum, before the Department of Education
Publications was formed and established under the Ministry of Education by the
Government of Sri Lanka in late 70’s. Besides school text books, the publishing house
proudly claims some of the landmark and iconic books ever published in the history of
Sri Lanka, in association with some of the most renowned scholars, authors and education
veterans of the time. Rathna Publications cover all literary genres ranging through
novels, translations, short stories, fiction, religions, history, politics, science,
medicine, indigenous medicine, traditional and customary affairs, dictionaries, and
those used in local Buddhist education curriculum, amongst a host of others.
Rathna® then towards the late 2000 started manufacturing school composition or what is commonly known as exercise books. Rathna® brand as of today, claims a wider portfolio covering a full range of school exercise books, all school, office and general-purpose stationery, manufactured using high quality material, under stringent compliance parameters.
Explore more on Rathna Books
ExploreMANGO®
Specializing in manufacturing of all types of writing equipment, mango™ has a wide array
of ball pens, gel pens, water-coloring pens, fiber-tip pens, felt-tip pens and counting,
covering the a wide gamut of pens for different uses and categories. The brand has
extended to other connected peripheral domains in school, office and general purpose
stationery an offers a wider range of products to everyday use. This includes glue and
adhesive products, coloring tools and other kids’ products, teenage stationery products
and those for working professionals.
Explore more on Mango Stationeries
Explore
The Founder Chairman
(Late) Mr. T. B. L. Gunaratne
The Founder’s Story
Our founding brand is RATHNA and is derived from the name of the Group's Late Founder Chairman, Mr. T. B. L. Gunaratne way back in 1958. Rathna carries a deep-rooted heritage of compiling and publishing the school textbooks in all three languages and was one of the very first establishments in the domain.
Besides school text books, the publishing house proudly claims some of the landmark and iconic books ever published in the history of Sri Lanka, in association with some of the most renowned scholars, authors and education veterans of the time. Rathna Publications cover all literary genres ranging through novels, translations, short stories, fiction, religions, history, politics, science, medicine, indigenous medicine, traditional and customary affairs, dictionaries, and those used in local Buddhist education curriculum, amongst a host of others.
Our History
1954
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.
1955
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.
1958
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.
1960
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.
1996
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.
1998
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.
1999
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
2000
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.
2004
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.
2005
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.
2006
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.
2008
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
2010
1ST OVERSEAS EXHIBITION
PRINTXCEL participated in its first overseas exhibition at the renowned Paperworld in Frankfurt, Germany
2011
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.
2012
1ST EXPORT BUSINESS
With a kick-start to an accelerated foreign trade business, the first shipment of global composition book, MeadⓇ was shipped.
2014
THE PEN FACTORY
Highly sophisticated and state-of-the-art pens & writing equipment manufacturing plant commissioned.
2015
PACKAGING FACTORY
Venturing into Commercial and B2B Business, a fully-fledged box-board packaging solutions providing arm was commissioned..
2017
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.
2020
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.
2021
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.
2022
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.
