Brighter Shades of a ‘T-shirt ‘Amplifying the Creativity & passion of a great team at our 50th Anniversary’

It was the latter part of 2022 when it struck me that Haycarb Plc, the Company that I headed since 2010 was about to celebrate its 50th year at the dawn of 2023; a remarkable milestone. I thought deeply about how we should commemorate, as well as celebrate this event.

As a part of the process, we wanted to identify suitable gifts for our international clients. These needed to be memorable, authentic and celebrate the Sri Lankan character, creativity as well as adhere to the theme of sustainability that Haycarb is always remembered for. The thought of creating a T-shirt that celebrated authentic Sri Lanka came to my mind. I was unsure how to go about creating such a T-shirt as we were not experts of textiles and garments.

Then I was struck with the idea of using the subject of Sri Lankan wildlife photography. Being a wildlife photographer, I had accumulated a large portfolio of original photographs after many years of roaming the jungles of Sri Lanka. One of my favorite animals to pursue in photography has been the elusive Leopard and naturally was at the top of my life to showcase on this T-shirt. This magnificent creature captures all the beauty of Sri Lanka’s wildlife and I thought would make a perfect candidate to be featured in our corporate gift on the making. This also knitted well with the theme of Sustainability which is at the core of Haycarb’s corporate strategy for the next wave of its 50 years with the upcoming launch of our ESG (Environment – Social – Governance) road map and life code along with our 50th year celebration in July 2023.

With the idea decided upon, I brought it to the marketing and sales team. They were very excited about the idea from the start, and I knew it would spark the energy and creativity of this young and creative team.

I gave them several different photos of leopards that I had collected from my trips to the Yala and Wilpattu National Parks in Sri Lanka.

The team came up with several different options for the T-shirt. They came up with a beautiful background design to match the leopard’s coat. We selected one photo that we thought really showcased the animal’s beauty. This was an image I’d captured at the Wilpattu National Park, and it reflected the experience of encountering this lovely and inquisitive animal in the wild.

Once the design of the T-shirt was agreed upon by a senior panel of Haycarb’s management team through a voting process, we chose the quote “ Save the Spots from Extinction’ as the caption. The final design has an enlarged leopard reflecting the animal emerging from the jungle.

Then came the challenge of getting a reputable company which could make around 700 of the T-shirts for us; since this was a smaller number than is usually commissioned, I anticipated that this would be difficult.

After weeks of searching, the team brought in a reputed garment manufacturer who was willing to undertake the task.?The senior manager I had an initial discussion with was quite energetic and enthusiastic about the project.?

The first task was to decide upon a type of fabric.?We asked for a sample which was light and cool and would allow the photograph to shine. The manufacturer gave us ample choices and we shortlisted 2-3 and asked for printed samples.

After a few days the samples came in and we were pleasantly surprised.?The photograph of the leopard was complemented by the fabric types, and we had a panel of senior members decide on the best print.

We then faced an obstacle; though we had decided upon the fabric for the leopard photo print on the front of the T-shirt, the back presented a challenge as it had to showcase the Haycarb logo, which is not the easiest to print. It has an intricate globe design which was challenging to get right.

The fabric chosen for the design of the front was not the best choice for the design on the back, so we had to change our fabric choice and go with our second choice. Once again, we had to go through sample printing and 2-3 rounds of optimizing.

The garment company produced a great sample so we could approve it without hesitation. However, since we needed the printing quality to remain consistent after it was sent into mass production, we specifically requested that each piece underwent a quality check through comparison with the sample we approved.

While this was being completed, the team worked simultaneously on the packaging. I wanted to include a pamphlet with the T-shirts which would contain a short description on the background of the Sri Lankan leopard. After many edits we came with a well written story accompanied by a few more of my original photographs.

The design for the gift wrap was made to feature the spots of the leopard in black & gold design along with our 50th anniversary logo on the wrapping.

Though initially we decided to dedicate this gift to only our clients, I decided to print extras so I could give them to the senior executive team, the T-shirt design team as well as all the invitees to our 50th anniversary celebration party scheduled in July. The plan is for the T-shirts to accompany the invitations to the Board of Haycarb/Hayleys, Group Management Committee of Hayleys and all heads of the departments.

The T-shirts were delivered to us in excellent quality and so far, I have not seen any inconsistency in this. The final delivery was a little later than we originally planned due to the time taken to finalize the design and we had to pack them to be gifted immediately. The boardroom was volunteered to be the venue for packing. Our main aim was to be ready with this gift for our USA tour and for the Water Quality Association (WQA) exhibition in Las Vegas in mid-April, and with the expedited FedEx delivery we made it just in time. Great job!

When I reflected upon this experience, working hand in hand with the Haycarb team on a project which was outside our usual expertise, I realized what strength, passion, and creativity this group of individuals had. I believe this team can bring any challenging project to successful fruition when correct guidance is provided. It is reasonable to assume the same is replicated with the rest of Haycarb management team, that I have known and worked closely with 13 years now.

The creativity, teamwork, collaboration, time management, emotional intelligence etc. which were seen through this project are same skills that are greatly valued in our usual business environment. It gives me pride and confidence that I and my senior team have facilitated a conducive environment and built an excellent team in our organization to Envision the futuristic ideas, projects and solutions that formulate our business strategy; then we have Empowered them to execute the strategy effectively thereby Enriching all-stake holders of our business including the society at large. These are the ‘3Es’ of our organizational culture fostering our Purpose, that the team must walk day in and day out.

This gives me confidence that Haycarb has the strength and caliber to grow even more in the next 50 years in “Driving Value; Changing Lives” which is the tag line of our recently unveiled Purpose Statement.

Long Live Haycarb; Kudos to the Team !?