Stone 'N' String in charge of souvenirs for SA Games

by Lal Gunesekera

"Our motive is not about making profit, but spotlight Sri Lanka. We have a lot of things lined up and a whole team is on the job", said Mohideen Saheed, the founder of Stone 'N' String (Pvt) Limited, a pioneer high fashion jewellery brand in Sri Lanka, which is one of the fastest growing brands in the South East Asian region.

Stone 'N' String won the exclusive rights from the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Sri Lanka to market souvenirs for the forthcoming South Asian Games to be staged in Sri Lanka. The agreement was signed on June 9, and although "time is short", Saheed, said that his establishment, which celebrates 25 years this year, took up the challenge.

Saheed said that as designers, Stone 'N' String are looking at bringing in lustre to the country, and apart from the usual T shirts, caps etc (professionally packed), they will design souvenirs like pens, wooden pencils with special aromas and flavours like chocolate and cinnamon etc, watches with the band of the country colours - even with diamonds an sapphires.

He further said that there will be 100 varieties of souvenirs with at least 30 percent made available to the market in the first week of July. He said that 10,000 watches from Stone 'N' String are going to the USA and that his establishment sells fashion and not jewellery. He went on to say that his firm will have an unique way of marketing the South Asian Games goodies through the NOC's of the eight countries competing in Sri Lanka and also through the web. A catalog too will be made available. They will also market these goods in booths at various stores.

Stone 'N' String has 40 outlets worldwide from Australia to the USA with a plan to open 100 more outlets in the very near future.

They even operate under Debenhams, the upmarket store in the Middle-East. They possess the biggest jewellery store (over 8000 square feet) in South East Asia and the only brand in the Asian and Middle-East regions to sell their products on five international airlines (Singapore Airlines, Emirates, Malaysian Airways, Eva Air, Jet Airways and SriLankan Airlines).

Stone 'N' String exclusively designed and manufactured the crown for the 2006 Miss Sri Lanka for the Miss Universe pageant and even gifted Pope Benedict XVI with "The Raja" (a jewelled elephant) which is a symbol of prosperity by his followers in Sri Lanka which was also designed and manufactured by Stone 'N' String.