Syed Nasir: A role model in plastic packaging industry

 

 

Job or business? Like many students, Syed  Nasir got confused over his future plan. In 1992, when he made up his mind for business, there was no capital at his hand. Father came to help him with Tk1.25 lakh from his retirement money. He launched a tin can manufacturing unit in Chattogram. Nasir’s company Xclusive Can Ltd now has an annual turnover of Tk225 crore.
When he started, Nasir received supply orders from a top multinational company - Berger Paints Bangladesh Ltd. Later In 1999, he expanded his business to produce plastic containers as the paint company made supply orders for it.

With the growth of industrialisation in the country, Nasir set a strong foot and made further expansion with innovative and quality products.
Syed Nasir has two separate business entities - one in Chattogram (two units) and another in Dhaka. Alongside Xclusive Can Ltd he has another company named Q Pail Ltd. The business in Dhaka was launched in 2007.

“I have been in the business for the last three decades. I commenced the business with a small capital from my father and ten employees. Now my annual turnover is Tk225 crore, and 1,400 people are directly engaged in my company,” Syed Nasir told the Daily Sun during a recent visit to his factory in Dhaka.
Nasir’s business adopted a green industrialisation policy. Both the factories in Dhaka are ISO 9001: 2015 certified. Moreover Xclusive Can Ltd unit in Dhaka has already obtained FSSC 22000 certificate which is meant for food, pharma and cosmetic related items and its primary packaging. Xclusive Can Ltd has achieved a GMP certificate.
The Chattogram part of Xclusive Can Ltd is dealing mainly with metal packaging while its Dhaka part with boh plastic and metal packaging and other items. On the other hand, Q Pail Ltd deals with only rigid and flexible plastic packing items.

The Chattogram factory is at the heart of Chattogram city while two factories in Dhaka are at Tongi and Mazukhan which are respectively only 7 km and 10 km away from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
A unique green factory in the industry
In order to make the production sustainable, better, and timely, Syed Nasir set up a “green factory” in Tongi area of Gazipur district.
He primarily took the initiative in 2015 to purchase private land only 3 km away from their factory in Tongi to build an environment-friendly compliant factory named after Xclusive Can Ltd.
The construction work of the new factory was completed at the end of 2019. The factory is architecturally and aesthetically pleasing and ensures great care of the health and safety of the workers, machines and assets.

“As the plot of the BSCIC industrial area was small, I decided to go outside of the area, and bought a 4-acre piece of land. However, we are making plastic and tin containers both mainly as packaging material for cosmetics, pharma, food, toiletries and others in the factory,” he added.
“I believe that it is a unique factory in the packaging industry of Bangladesh. I just wanted to create an example to set up the green factory. I am very happy to build such an environmentally friendly factory and a decent workplace for workers,” Syed Nasir also told the Daily Sun.

“The factory is aiming at catering to the country’s various industry specific evolving needs and demands for quality industrial plastic and metal packing items with particular emphasis on food, pharma and cosmetics,” Nasir added.
The factory is eco-friendly with a dual ventilation system of both natural and mechanical, architecturally robust and aesthetic, hygienic, neat and clean having conducive working environment with all utility services centralised and sophisticated.

“The factory has been built with environmentally-friendly green technology. Exhaust fans vent out the inner heat, keeping the inside temperature 5 degrees Celsius lower than the outside. To ensure enough light and air, the height of the ground floor ceiling is 20 feet while others are above 18 feet -around double the residential building storey height,” he stated.      
He said that the factory leaves 8,000 square feet of space in its compound for vegetation and greenery as there are also plants on the balconies and on the rooftop.
“We consider health safety and food safety in all seriousness because of many exported food items in our boxes. A good number of robotic machines, bought from China, have been set up in the factory.”
“I invested around Tk200 crore to set up a sustainable green factory, modern machines and technologies bought from different countries. The green features of the production unit that make plastic cans, ice-cream boxes, lubricants, pharmaceutical and paint containers,” he said.

Nasir said the company’s products are supplied to almost all multinational companies in Bangladesh. I tried to create an example in the plastic packaging industry constructing green buildings.
Nasir’s clients are --- Berger, Asian, Nippon, Dulux, Elite in the paints industry and Savoy, Polar, Kwality and Lovello in the ice-cream industry.
Besides, Radiant, Popular, and ACI Pharma in pharmaceuticals, Aarong and Milk Vita in the dairy sector and Unilever in cosmetics are among its clients.
He shared his expanding business in the paint industry. He said that Asian Paint was launched in Dhaka in 2003.

At that time, many companies moved from Chittagong to Dhaka. He also came to Dhaka in 2007, and opened a factory near Tongi bridge to provide cans for Asian paints.
Later in 2009, he shifted the factory to Bangladesh Small & Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) Industrial Estate, Tongi. Afterward, all paint companies came to Nasir’s for the products.
At that time, global paint manufacturers including Jotun and Nippon came to the country. Nasir said it helped to further expand his market for the products. Alongside this, many pharmaceutical companies also started to buy our products thanks to innovative and quality products.

“Now I am getting good response from different sectors, and 1,400 people are working in my factories. My annual turnover reached Tk225 crore,” he also informed.
Commencement business challenge for SME

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to face a lot of challenges at the business starting time, Nasir said, adding, “Access to finance is a major problem.”
“I come from a middle-class family. I am the seventh of ten brothers and sisters. Like many families in our society, my parents also did not want me to be a businessman as there is a risk in business for livelihood. However, most of my brothers and sisters were good students. Some of them became doctors, engineers and government officials. I became a businessman.”
At the beginning of my business, I had to struggle like many. The loans from banks and relatives helped me to rebound the business and overcome challenges at the time, he added.
However, there is a lack of skilled manpower in the industry. Every university authority should open an entrepreneurship department to create more entrepreneurs in the country. It will help to boost the country's economy.

All students should take a pragmatic education through an updated curriculum so that they can play a significant role in industries. There is a big gap between industry and academia. Practical education in universities can reduce the skill gap in the industry.
Bangladesh’s total 206 are Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified green factories. It includes nine of the top ten, and 18 of the top 20 LEED-certified factories in the world.  
“If our garment sector can achieve success, our packaging industry also can. We just need to start the work as per plan.”
“I visited different countries before setting up the green factory. It inspired me. We all have to go into sustainable business now as we are graduating from the least developed countries (LDCs) in 2026.”

Focus on recycling
Plastics products are a big concerning issue nowadays for the environment. As now it has become a part of global people. So, we have to focus on the 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) policy, he said.
He added that his tin cans are completely biodegradable. As a result, I find mental satisfaction. The company would eventually not pollute and destroy the environment and harm its habitants in future.
“So, all plastic goods makers and users should be aware of this. In this context, I believe that Bangladesh needs waste segregation and better waste management so that plastic products can be recycled and reused.We focus on recycling 25% of our local products.”
Besides, all users should not hurl plastic goods here and there. Now it can be sold. I want to encourage others about factory compliance, worker safety and green workplace so that industrial accidents can be averted, Nasir added.

Anticipation for the industry
More than 1,000 entrepreneurs are active in the packaging industry of the country. There is an investment of over Tk20,000 crore in the sector where 20 lakh people are directly engaged.
Xclusive Can Ltd holds 20% market share in the cans sector of the country, Syed  Nasir informed.
“I import raw material from the Middle East countries. However, I want to diversify my business, which will set up a factory in the Mirsarai Economic Zone (in Chattogram). My future plan is to expand the business in both local and international markets.”
He added, “We need policy support from the government. All government officials must be business-friendly as business people contribute immensely in the country’s economy.”