Atlas Axillia Archives

June 29, 2023

Orion City IT Park, welcomes Atlas Axillia Co. (Pvt) Ltd, the leading stationery & learning company in Sri Lanka, who has chosen Orion City as the ideal location for their Marketing and Growth team. Atlas Axillia was founded in 1959 and has evolved into Sri Lanka’s foremost learning company fully owned by Hemas Holding Limited. With the goal of enhancing creativity and productivity, Atlas Axillia is confident that Orion City will support their sales and marketing functions while continuing to expand their business.

Radiksha Rabichandran (Marketing Manager) of Atlas Axillia commented on the decision: “Our aim was to craft a truly exceptional space for our marketing and growth teams – one that would embody creativity, freedom, and collaboration, while simultaneously driving productivity and fostering ground-breaking innovation. Orion City emerged as the perfect choice for our new office as a result of its location, top-notch infrastructure, and unrivalled facilities, which perfectly align with our vision. By establishing our presence in this remarkable space, Atlas Axillia is poised to continue leading the charge as Sri Lanka’s leading learning company, unleashing the potential of our future generations.”

Orion City’s stress-free environment and uninterrupted power supply are credited for facilitating our Company’s highly efficient daily operations. Moreover, with its strategic location and plethora of amenities, Orion City enables employees to achieve a healthy work-life balance. The Complex houses over 60 local and international companies, offering employees access to a 24×7 dedicated help desk.

Additional conveniences include ample car parking, power backup, food and beverage outlets, a fitness center, and other facilities such as a supermarket, bank outlets, and ATMs. To ensure uninterrupted power supply, Orion City employs energy-efficient technologies and plentiful storage and fuel.

Orion City also offers daily garbage disposal, janitorial services, and pest control to ensure cleanliness. Lastly, its proximity to the main City Limits and easy access to the Colombo-Katunayake Airport expressway, train stations, and bus stops make it an ideal location for businesses.

Atlas Axillia joins over 60 local and international companies currently served by Orion City. By choosing Orion City as their hub for marketing and growth, Atlas Axillia is poised to leverage its exceptional services and facilities to further expand its business as the leading learning organization in the Country.

December 8, 2020

Colombo, November 2020 – Sri Lanka’s leading stationery manufacturer, Atlas Axillia Co., recently hosted a teacher training webinar targeting primary teachers for the first time in Sri Lanka. The webinar was facilitated by Atlas to help ease the challenges faced by both, teachers and students during the pandemic when adapting to virtual learning environments – a fairly new concept faced by the country’s education system. The online event was one of Atlas’s many initiatives launched to support students to continue their education during the pandemic.

With over 400 teachers joining from across the country, the webinar was conducted by Mr. Wasantha Herath, National Representative of Asia-Pacific Regional Network for Early Childhood (ARNEC), who spoke about “The Role of Teachers During the COVID-19 Pandemic” and introduced interactive and effective methods of getting students involved during online classes.

Commenting on the webinar, Asitha Samaraweera, Managing Director at Atlas Axillia Co. said, “The pandemic had unexpectedly forced our education system to move into a digital learning space, leaving teachers to adapt on their own with little or no training. Teachers are a vital part of our education system and it is essential for them to have adequate tools in order to navigate this digital shift.” He added, “For many years, Atlas has empowered teachers through multiple outreach programmes such as ‘Guru Garu’. Despite the pandemic, we will continue our commitment to provide the necessary training for teachers around the country that will enable them to foster students with equal learning opportunities.”

During the webinar, Mr. Herath encouraged teachers to be resilient through the pandemic, emphasizing that their response to the pandemic is what matters most, especially to the students. He stressed on the importance of children’s mental health during the pandemic and asked teachers to educate beyond books – by helping students connect with their parents as well as nature as it directly impacts their education. The webinar also covered the benefits of online education and how teachers can utilize online platforms such as YouTube in order to stay relevant in the digital times. Mr. Herath reminded the teachers not to underestimate the technological knowledge of primary school children in this day and age.

Teachers found the webinar to be interactive as many rushed to the chat boxes to ask questions and a few participants who had the chance to speak during the webinar encouraged Atlas to continue these online trainings as they were insightful to their teaching careers. There was also an opportunity for teachers to compete for Atlas gift hampers through a quiz that was presented during the webinar.

Earlier this year, during the nation-wide lockdown, Atlas launched an online tutoring video series to support grade 5 scholarship students with their studies. Additionally, Atlas released a video for parents featuring advice from Ama Dissanayake, Psychotherapist and Child Psychology Counselor, about how parents can care for their children during this tough and disoriented period. Atlas shared different types of art and craft activities that parents could use to help engage their children at home while easing them into the new setting and most importantly, make memories. Atlas also partnered with the Ministry of Education to educate children about hygiene & safety in order to maintain a safe learning environment when it was time for them to go back to school under the “new normal” circumstances.

Atlas Axillia Co. (Private) Limited, formerly known as Ceylon Pencil Company (Private) Limited, was founded in 1959 and has since grown to become Sri Lanka’s market leader in school stationery manufacturing. Fueled by a passion for providing school children with essential tools for success, “Atlas” has created a strong connection with Sri Lankan consumers, being voted Sri Lanka’s most loved brand in 2017 and winning the prestigious National Quality Award in 2018.

November 5, 2020

Colombo, November 5, 2020 – Atlas Axillia Co. (Private) Limited has announced its partnership with the Ministry of Environment to support its special environmental initiative “Not a rule but a discipline – නීතියක් නොවෙයි විනයක්”. The initiative aims to inculcate the habit of protecting the environment in school children, and adults by encouraging them to recycle used plastic pens and toothbrushes, instead of discarding them as garbage. A special recycle bin prepared for the project was presented to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on the 26^th of October in a simple event to launch the project held at the Presidential Secretariat, with the participation of Mahinda Amaraweera, Minister of Environment; Asitha Samaraweera, Managing Director, Atlas Axillia; and senior officers of the Ministry of Environment.

This initiative started along the theme of ‘Let’s discipline ourselves before we build the nation’ – අපි හැදිලා රට හදමු to reduce plastic consumption in Sri Lanka, especially among the school children. It was envisioned that the society will benefit when the next generation is disciplined and inculcated with the thought process of being environmentally friendly and will help to keep the country less polluted in the future. It was also considered important that children understand how a habit created today can build up to a bigger initiative in the long run.

“As the market leader in pens, and a company with sustainability as part of its ethos, Atlas is the first in the stationery industry to focus on collecting discarded pens. We started the “Atlas Haritha Pasela” initiative in February of this year, to collect used pens at school level and trialed the project out in 6 schools in the Western Province. The collaboration with the Ministry of Environment to support its efforts to recycle used pens and toothbrushes all over the country, is therefore a natural progression for us. It is essential that we step up today, for our future generations.” Asitha Samaraweera, Managing Director, Atlas Axillia stated, commenting on the partnership.

As a first step, the collection bins for the project designed to contain up to 2000 pens, will be placed at every school in the country. The collected pens and toothbrushes will be recycled, in order to reduce addition of new plastic to the circulation. The Ministry will also launch the initiative to offices and workplaces parallel to the project being launched in Schools. According to estimations by the Ministry of Environment, the quantity of carbon pen tubes discarded from schools per day is around 80 kg and is estimated to exceed 29,000 kg per annum, while the quantity discharged from public and private institutions is yet to be calculated.

Atlas Axillia Co. (Private) Limited, formerly known as Ceylon Pencil Company (Private) Limited, was founded in 1959 and has since grown to become Sri Lanka’s market leader in school stationery manufacturing. Fuelled by a passion for making learning fun, “Atlas” has created a strong connection with Sri Lankan consumers, being voted No. 1 School Supply Brand of the year 2020 at the People’s Choice Awards and has also recently won many national and international awards for excellence including the National Quality Award 2018 and the Global Performance Excellence Award 2019.

May 12, 2020

Atlas Axillia (Pvt.) Limited, a subsidiary of the Hemas Group, gifted three more fully homegrown Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV) robots to Dr. Anil Jasinghe, Director General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Indigenous Medicine recently. Atlas’ AGVs, the first robots to be introduced in the fight against COVID-19 in Sri Lanka, are already in operation at the Base Hospital Homagama and the new treatment facility at Iranawila, dedicated to COVID-19 patients. The latest upgraded robots are earmarked for deployment at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Colombo, and the Colombo South Teaching Hospital, Kalubowila.

Atlas

Atlas, Sri Lanka’s leading stationery manufacturer, developed these AGVs for the national fight against COVID-19 in consultation with health ministry officials, in a bid to extend the utmost assistance to ensure the safety of the health care workers. The latest AGV robots have been upgraded with the capability of measuring the temperature of the patient through a thermal sensor and recording it with a time stamp. The recorded data can also be retrieved as individualised reports of each patient’s temperature movements. This further enhances the safety provided for medical personnel as all five AGV robots enable doctors to monitor patients remotely, with inbuilt video conferencing capabilities. These AGVs are also able to carry food and medicine, minimising direct contact between other hospital staff and patients.

Dr. Indika Jagoda, Regional Director of Health Services – Colombo saw value in the technological innovation of the AGV robots and championed its use against the pandemic. “It is truly heartening when a local company steps up at a time of national need and creates innovations without any commercial motivation, simply for the social good it will create. The two AGV robots already deployed at key facilities are fully functional and helping healthcare workers to treat patients, and I am certain the new, improved robots will build on that success and be invaluable in the fight against COVID-19,” he said, speaking on the initiative.

The AGV concept was first developed by the Atlas manufacturing and engineering team as a robotic assistant in the production process at factory, as part of the ecosystem of a larger Artificial Intelligence journey being undertaken by the company. With the outbreak of the pandemic, the team led by Viraj Jayasuriya, COO / Director Operations and comprising of Dayan Harsha (Tech Lead), Vijitha Muthugala (Chief Engineer), Sirantha Chularathne, Anuradha Nuwan, Prasad Niroshana, Eranda Amila, Janaka Lasantha, Nishantha Kumara, Shalika Amarathunga, Gayan Asanka and Kushan Nanayakkara has worked day and night to build multiple robots with advanced features to work as remote medical assistants.

Dr. Dimuth Ponweera, Hospital Director at the Iranawila COVID-19 treatment centre, where the Atlas AGV robot has been deployed, praised the team’s dedication. “The Atlas team led by Viraj Jayasooriya have to be specially mentioned for working tirelessly day and night to get the robot up and running. They have contributed greatly to help us face this great challenge as Sri Lankans.”

The team also helped troubleshoot issues with robotic assistants for COVID-19 built by other innovators, keeping to the promise to extend help to anyone who comes forward to produce more robots.

“For over 60 years, Atlas has been a company that put the national interest at the forefront. We are humbled to be able to contribute to the national cause at a time of need with home grown innovations that address a vital need to overcome one of the biggest pandemics the world has ever faced,” Asitha Samaraweera, Managing Director, Atlas Axillia stated.

About Atlas Axillia Co. (Private) Limited,

Atlas Axillia Co. (Private) Limited, formerly known as Ceylon Pencil Company (Private) Limited, was founded in 1959 and has since grown to become Sri Lanka’s market leader in school stationery manufacturing. Fuelled by a passion for providing school children with essential tools for success, “Atlas” has created a strong connection with Sri Lankan consumers, being voted No. 1 School Supply Brand of the year 2020 at the People’s Choice Awards and has also recently won many national and international awards for excellence including the National Quality Award 2018 and the Global Performance Excellence Award 2019

December 5, 2017

At the recently concluded SLIM – NASCO Awards 2017, Atlas Axillia won three prestigious Awards, proving once again its strength and capability in the sales arena.

The SLIM National Sales Congress (NASCO) Awards annually recognize the country’s highest performing sales professionals and is the only event to recognize and award the country’s sales teams whilst aiming to enhance the profile of the sales professionals in Sri Lanka.

Two Atlas employees Mr. Samantha Jayasinghe, Manager, Modern Trade and Institutional Sales and Mr. Ajantha Fernando, Business Development Manager, won Gold and Bronze Awards respectively in the Territory Manager Category, whilst Mr. Mahesh Perera, Sales Supervisor won a Gold Award in the Sales Supervisor Category.

These achievements by Atlas employees reinforces the commitment given by the company to train and uplift its employees into a high performing team, ensuring employee motivation and satisfaction.

The superior performance driven by this culture has enabled Atlas to reinforce its position as the undisputed market leader in the school and office stationery category, whilst strengthening the company’s image as an employer that facilitates employee enrichment and progress.

Orion City becomes new home of Atlas Axillia Marketing and Growth Team

Atlas Axillia hosts Sri Lanka’s First Ever Teacher Training Webinar

Atlas Axillia Joins hands with Ministry of Environment

Atlas Axillia hands over three more AGV robots to protect healthcare workers against COVID-19

Atlas Axillia wins two Gold and a Bronze at the SLIM – NASCO Awards 2017