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| Sunday, 10 February 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Rainco makes splash with SLS certification by Jayanthi Liyanage Rainco created a splash in umbrella annals when it received the country's first and only SLS 1207 certification for its brand of umbrellas recently. C.D.R.A. Jayawardena, Director-General, Sri Lanka Standards Institution awarded the SLS 1207 certificate to Fazal M. Fausz, Executive Director, Rainco (Pvt) Ltd. Rainco aspires to take rain-wear from a backyard manufacture to a major industry in the 21st century. Begun as an involvement of Fausz and his wife in 'Globe' umbrella in 1978, resulting in the 1990 inception of Sri Lanka Umbrella Industries (SLUI) to take over its manufacture and marketing, 'Rainco' was the re-birth of 'Globe' with its new marketer, Rainco (Pvt) Ltd. being incorporated in 1998. SLUI succeeded in modernising and segmenting the once ubiquitous wooden-handled, metal-ribbed, brass-capped, cotton-clothed, straight umbrella into a colourful and foldable, taffeta-draped range of high-tech products, producing high fashionability as well as diverse functionality in an umbrella. Rainco sports about 20 varieties traversing from ladies', gents' and kiddies' to leisure (garden and beach umbrellas) and the latest trend in outdoor advertising - promotional umbrellas, displaying the advertiser's logo or message on the panels. The umbrellas range from regular, two-folding and three-folding to single and double-ribbed models including a wooden shaft umbrella for that discerning guy who wishes to stand apart in a crowd. Among Rainco's specialities are new safety locks, an attractive fashion-line of handles, flexible metal ribs and a 'wind-proof' ability which keeps the umbrella intact when it goes back against the wind. "Our policy is to put up factories in distant villages where infrastructure is not available so when we obtain it, the villagers benefit," Hilmy Sulaiman, CEO, Rainco (Pvt) Ltd. said. The main factory is located along the main Colombo-Kandy highway in Kadugannawa with additional facilities at Dippitiya, Danture and Mawanella. "Although now we import components and assemble umbrellas here, we want to make 100 per cent Sri Lankan umbrellas and export these to the SAARC region, to begin with," Sulaiman said. Rainco also markets rain-suits and coats and 'Mosquinets', a range of mosquito nets including babynets.Rainco has creatively fashioned the umbrella into a gift concept which is sure to prove its mettle in the Valentine market. |
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