As Teejay Lanka PLC marks its 25th anniversary, the company reflects on a journey defined by transformation, resilience, and strategic growth. From its inception in 2000 as Sri Lanka’s first multinational knit-fabric mill, Teejay has expanded into a formidable regional leader in textile manufacturing with a diversified product portfolio, global market presence, and an unwavering commitment to sustainability and innovation.
Building the Foundation of Leadership
Established with a clear vision to pioneer weft-knit manufacturing in Sri Lanka, Teejay has grown into one of South Asia’s largest and most respected knit-fabric providers. Listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange in 2011, the company has leveraged its strong corporate governance and financial discipline to position itself as a trusted supplier to the world’s leading apparel brands. Today, Teejay not only leads the Sri Lankan textile landscape but also plays a pivotal role across India, Mauritius, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Indonesia, enabling its customers to source fabrics closer to their end-markets with speed and efficiency.
At the heart of Teejay’s success lies a customer-first philosophy. By aligning with the needs of global brands such as Nike, PVH, Uniqlo, Marks & Spencer, and Victoria’s Secret, Teejay has built enduring partnerships that go beyond transactions. These relationships are nurtured by values of integrity, collaboration, and innovation, allowing the company to co-create fabric solutions that embody the evolving requirements of international fashion and lifestyle markets.
Expanding Manufacturing Footprint
Teejay’s manufacturing capabilities are anchored by a robust global footprint. The parent facility in Sri Lanka remains the cornerstone, producing 45 tons per day of high-quality weft-knitted fabrics across cotton, cellulosic blends, modal, synthetics like nylon and polyester, and value-added jacquards. Complementing this is Teejay India, located in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, with a capacity of 55 tons per day, making it one of the largest weft-knit facilities in the region. Teejay India has expanded the group’s product basket with fleece, lace, pigment super soft, reactive, and discharge fabrics.
Adding further integration is Teejay Prints in Sri Lanka, a wholly owned subsidiary that delivers 20,000 metres daily of printed fabrics through pigment, discharge, reactive, disperse, and digital techniques. Meanwhile, Nubian Threads in Mauritius contributes 1–3 tons per day, focusing on cotton, modal, and synthetic fabrics, and acts as a critical link in the group’s global supply chain. Together, this network empowers Teejay to deliver approximately 100 tons daily, comprising 78 tons of cotton-based fabrics and 22 tons of synthetics. This scale and diversity enable the company to serve multiple fashion categories with agility, ranging from intimates and activewear to sleepwear, outerwear, and casualwear.
Portfolio of Products and Innovation
Teejay’s product portfolio has consistently evolved to match the shifting dynamics of global fashion. From single jersey, interlock, rib, pique, fleece, lace, and jacquards to advanced prints, the company’s fabrics have become integral to the collections of leading global retailers. What sets Teejay apart is its capacity to innovate with both natural and synthetic fibres, ensuring a balance between tradition and technology.
The company’s innovation centre, INSCOPE, exemplifies this commitment. Acting as a hub for forward-thinking product development, INSCOPE integrates internal expertise with partnerships across universities, research institutions, and external specialists. Through sustained investment in research and development, Teejay explores new frontiers in yarns, fibres, dyes, chemicals, and sustainable manufacturing techniques.
This culture of innovation has led Teejay to pioneer numerous industry-firsts. It was the first to revolutionise single jersey jacquard production from all fibres, develop cotton longevity products, and launch recycled cotton offerings for the North American market. Teejay also became the first Sri Lankan mill to provide end-to-end solutions for Nike by localising yarn supply and the first in South Asia to achieve PLAN A accreditation as a dye house for Marks & Spencer. These milestones underscore Teejay’s ability to blend creativity with technology to deliver differentiated value to its customers.
Digital and Technological Transformation
A defining feature of Teejay’s journey has been its proactive embrace of digitalisation and automation. The company has achieved full integration of its knitting machines into a smart knitting network in partnership with Xdoto. Each machine now transmits real-time operational data through IoT-enabled systems, providing insights into machine utilisation, yarn breakages, stoppage causes, and quality metrics. This has driven machine utilisation up from 58% to 73% and boosted average daily production from 30,000 kg to 35,000 kg.
By linking this data to its ERP backbone powered by SAP, Teejay ensures a unified, transparent decision-making system across operations. Beyond knitting, robotic process automation (RPA) has been introduced to eliminate repetitive tasks, freeing employees for higher-value roles. AI-driven solutions like CoPilot further support employees with real-time insights, while IoT-enabled monitoring optimises energy and resource consumption. These investments not only enhance productivity but also align with Teejay’s sustainability vision by reducing waste and improving efficiency.
Commitment to Sustainability
Sustainability forms the core of Teejay’s corporate DNA. The company has consistently taken bold strides to minimise its environmental footprint while creating positive community impact. Guided by its ABHIVARAH 2030 roadmap, Teejay has set ambitious environmental, social, and governance (ESG) targets.
In 2024, all three facilities—Teejay Lanka, Teejay India, and Teejay Prints—scored above 90% in the Higg FEM assessment, with Teejay Lanka achieving 99%, one of the highest scores globally among textile manufacturers. The company also hosted the inaugural Knitting Sustainability Summit in Colombo in 2024, the first zero-carbon event of its kind in Sri Lanka’s textile industry. By bringing together NGOs, government bodies, and industry experts, the summit underscored Teejay’s thought leadership in sustainable fashion, chemical management, and ESG integration.
Teejay’s commitment extends to renewable energy, with investments in a 7 MW solar project and a biomass-based fuel switch, both expected to significantly cut costs and carbon emissions. Its accreditation as a Bluesign System Partner demonstrates its adherence to safe chemical management and clean manufacturing. As a Patron of the UN Global Compact Network Sri Lanka’s Sustainable Supply Chain Working Group, Teejay is also shaping global conversations on ethical sourcing and circularity.
Global Expansion and Market Opportunities
In recent years, Teejay has accelerated its global expansion to strengthen its market relevance and reduce dependency on any single geography. With new entries into Egypt and Indonesia, alongside enhanced operations in Bangladesh and India, the company is strategically positioned to capitalise on the “China Plus One” trend. As many brands diversify sourcing away from China, Teejay’s presence across South Asia, Africa, and beyond offers customers risk-mitigated, closer-to-market solutions.
This expansion has also enabled Teejay to diversify its revenue streams, serve new customer segments, and mitigate risks from geopolitical shifts and tariffs. By aligning capacity expansion with market diversification, the company continues to build resilience against global headwinds while opening new avenues for growth.
Future Outlook: Knitting the Next Chapter
Looking ahead, Teejay Lanka has set an ambitious revenue target of USD 350 million by 2025/26. To achieve this, the company will continue to invest in product diversification, synthetic-based innovations, and specialised offerings such as jacquards, fleece, finer gauges, and polo fabrics. Simultaneously, Teejay will focus on enhancing customer relationships and tapping into non-luxury apparel segments, which are projected to grow strongly as global consumers seek affordable, functional fashion.
Technology and sustainability will remain the twin pillars of this strategy. The group’s ongoing digital transformation, including AI-driven process optimisation and IoT-based monitoring, will drive operational excellence. Parallelly, its sustainability initiatives, ranging from renewable energy projects to Scope 3 emission reductions, will further strengthen its reputation as a responsible global leader.
As Chairman Ajit Gunewardene noted in his anniversary statement, Teejay’s transformation into a globally recognised textile solutions provider has been powered by investments in technology, product innovation, and operational excellence. Despite global headwinds, the company has shown resilience, adaptability, and an ability to consistently deliver value.
Teejay’s 25-year journey is more than a story of growth—it is a testament to vision, perseverance, and innovation. From its roots as Sri Lanka’s pioneering knit-fabric mill to its status as a global leader with a diversified portfolio and multi-continental footprint, Teejay has consistently redefined possibilities in textile manufacturing.
Its legacy is knitted not just in the fabrics it produces but also in the lives it touches, the communities it uplifts, and the planet it strives to protect. As Teejay embarks on its next chapter, it stands as a shining example of how a Sri Lankan company can make a global impact, knitting together technology, sustainability, and human passion into a lasting legacy for the future of fashion.