There are moments in an industry’s history when progress begins with a seemingly ordinary question: Why can’t we do this ourselves?
For Upendra Sathis Abeywickrama, that question became the beginning of a journey that would span almost five decades and help reshape an important segment of Sri Lanka’s printing and packaging industry.
In August 2026, at Flexo Summit Asia in Bengaluru, India, Abeywickrama was recognised as a ‘Flexo Avenger’, a recognition presented to converters who have made a significant impact on the development of flexographic printing. He was featured in the session, ‘Flexo Avengers: Converters who Changed the Game,’ alongside leading industry figures from the region.
For Sri Lanka, the significance of the recognition goes beyond one individual.
It represents a journey that began at a time when much of the specialised packaging required by the country’s export industries was sourced from overseas.
Abeywickrama entered the printing industry in 1978 as a Management Trainee at Aitken Spence Printing. What was initially expected to be a temporary engagement while awaiting his A/L examination results became a lifelong career. Over the years, he developed expertise in printing, packaging and international business before establishing Print USA in 1989.
Then came Flexiprint.
In the early 1990s, Sri Lanka’s tea industry was expanding its value-added exports, but tea bag tags and envelopes were largely being imported, particularly from the United Kingdom and Japan. Rather than viewing this simply as a commercial reality, Abeywickrama saw an opportunity for Sri Lanka to develop its own manufacturing capability.
Flexiprint was established in 1994.
The idea was straightforward. The execution was anything but.
At the time, Abeywickrama did not have direct experience in flexographic printing. He had to learn the technology from the ground up and confront an important question facing the industry: could flexography deliver the colour consistency, registration accuracy and print quality expected from gravure and offset printing?
The answer, ultimately, was yes.
Through research, process control and continuous innovation, Flexiprint demonstrated that flexographic printing could achieve world-class standards.
But perhaps the more important question was not whether flexography could print well. It was whether it could print responsibly.
Tea packaging sits close to the food product itself. During his study of the technology, Abeywickrama identified the widespread use of solvent-based and dye-based inks in tea tag production and questioned whether there was a safer and more environmentally responsible alternative.
That thinking led Flexiprint towards water-based inks, making it one of the pioneers in Asia to adopt the technology for tea packaging. Food safety, quality and environmental responsibility subsequently became central to the company’s approach.
This is where the story becomes bigger than flexography.
A manufacturing company can import technology. It can purchase machinery. It can recruit expertise. But building an industry capability requires something more difficult: the confidence to believe that a product made in Sri Lanka can stand alongside products manufactured anywhere else in the world.
Over the years, that confidence translated into an international business.
Flexiprint developed into a manufacturer of tea bag tags, tea envelopes, tagged pyramid mesh tea bags and specialty labels, supplying customers across Asia, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and North America.
In that sense, the journey mirrors an important opportunity for Sri Lankan manufacturing.
The country has long possessed strengths in sectors such as tea, apparel and agriculture. The next level of value creation, however, lies in developing the specialised technologies, components and services that support those industries. The story of Flexiprint illustrates how an apparent dependence on imports can become an opportunity for domestic industrial capability and export growth.
Yet Abeywickrama’s philosophy remains remarkably people-centred.
He does not describe success as the achievement of one individual. His leadership approach places employees, suppliers and customers at the centre of the business, grounded in integrity, transparency, respect and continuous improvement.
His view of leadership is equally direct: a leader should set standards, provide solutions and work alongside the team. He believes that because he has worked through the industry himself, he understands the contribution made at every level of an organisation.
That philosophy perhaps explains why the story has endured.
The company has received international recognition, including awards from the Flexographic Technical Association in the United States, alongside Presidential Export Awards, National Business Excellence Awards and a Lifetime Achievement Award for Abeywickrama’s contribution to Sri Lanka’s printing industry.
But the latest recognition carries a different symbolism.
To be named a ‘Flexo Avenger’ in a major Asian industry forum is not merely an acknowledgement of commercial achievement. It is recognition of a willingness to challenge conventional thinking, adopt new technology, build local expertise and keep raising the standard.
Perhaps that is the most fitting description of Abeywickrama’s journey.
He did not set out simply to build another printing company. He saw a gap in Sri Lanka’s industrial capability and chose to close it. He saw imported products and imagined local manufacturing. He saw an emerging technology and learned it. He saw environmental and food-safety concerns and sought a better solution.
And, over time, what began as one company’s ambition became an international statement: that sophisticated packaging made in Sri Lanka can compete with the world.
The ‘Flexo Avenger’ recognition in Bengaluru therefore belongs not only to a veteran of the printing industry. It also belongs to an idea – that Sri Lankan industry can move from being a consumer of technology to becoming a creator of capability.