BUSINESS OF A SMALL TOWN!

Ciudad Colon, located approximately 20km from the Costa Rican capital of San Jose, is the largest town and economic hub, of the Canton Mora (Mora County). Businesses located in Ciudad include light manufacturing, recycling centres, several restaurants (including Japanese, German, Thai and Chinese cuisine), electronics stores, transportation companies, two supermarkets and law offices amongst others. (Pic above: One of the major landmarks of the town is the Church street/Anish Saha)

Team members Mwango (sitting), Hirokai (standing left) and Carl (standing right) waiting to go to go the factory of one of the family’s business place to cover and interview them as part of their Media project/Anish Saha.

Shrouded within the greenery of the trees, the factory is situated on the outskirts of Ciudad Colon on the way to Santa Ana/ Anish Saha

Finally they reached the premises and the first approach was one of surprise at the size of the factory/ Anish Saha

The complex amalgamation of machines used for sorting of plastic packs for packaging fritas and tortilla chips/ Anish Saha

The production manager Franklin Villalobos attends to one of the machines and sets its settings, a regular day to day routine for him. / Anish Saha

Mr. Alexis Hidalgo Vargas is the owner and general manager of Reflex – Representaciones de Flexograficas de Centroamerica, a family business which produces plastic packaging for a number of commercial purposes, including food products (e.g. snack foods and candies), and in some cases, the packaging of the product itself./ Anish Saha

The impression unit where the rolls of plastics are printed on and impressed with the name of the goods that will be packaged later on. / Anish Saha

Mr Alexis explains in great detail the working of the machines and the process followed in completing orders on time as the team listens to him with rapt attention/ Anish Saha

One of the workers at the impression unit, carefully looks at the working of the machine to make sure everything is alright and working well/ Anish Saha

Eliazar Pavon, fondly called Chino is in charge of the assembly line of the finished products i.e. the plastic bags which this complex machinery assembles. / Anish Saha

Eliazar Pavon stands at the end of the machine and gathers the end product which is clearly seen in the bottom left picture/ Anish Saha

Just as the scope of Reflex's business has extended beyond Costa Rica's borders. This family business utilizes heavy machinery manufactured in Taiwan, Brazil and Japan. However, in true “Tico” fashion, the first machine the company purchased was manufactured in Costa Rica and is still in use today./ Anish Saha

Mr. Alexis, the General Manager of Reflex gives a brief description of security measures in the company and factory and shows what kind of details are available to see in the video footage./ Anish Saha

The team takes an intense interview with the General Manager Mr. Alexis and he patiently answers to all the questions in great detail./ Anish Saha

After finishing with the interview Mr. Alexis shows the team the finished products with the goods in them./ Anish Saha

The proud team of Reflex stand outside their factory. Reflex has remained a viable business for over ten years despite competition from much larger commercial companies. In fact, in large part due its high-quality production and attention to detail, this local Ciudad Colon business has secured international contracts with companies in Nicaragua and Panama. [Left to right: Carol Carmona, (Secretary), Franklin Villalobos (production manger), Eliazar Pavon (Chino) and Mr Alexis Hidalgo Vargas (General Manager)]/ Anish Saha