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BGMEA President Faruque Hassan met with Ambassador of Greece to India Dionyssios Kyvetos at the embassy in New Delhi on April 16.
They had discussions on different issues of mutual interests, including potential areas and ways of promoting bilateral trade and investment between Bangladesh and Greece.
They also exchanged views on how Bangladesh can enhance its exports of products including ready-made garments, frozen food, chemical products, ceramic, jute, leather products to Greece.
The BGMEA President said Greece is an attractive tourist destination for global tourists including Bangladeshis.
He called upon the Ambassador for making visas and other travel related procedures more simplified for Bangladeshi tourists who want to visit Greece.
Faruque Hassan, who is also Honorary Consul General of Greece to Bangladesh, requested the envoy to promote Bangladesh, particularly its RMG industry in Greece.
Greece is one of the major export markets of Bangladeshi garments.
Bangladesh most profitable unit of Maricoâs intâl business
Says Marico Bangladesh MD
Jagaran Chakma
Sun Apr 3, 2022 12:00 AM Last update on: Sun Apr 3, 2022 05:54 PM
As far as Marico is concerned, Bangladesh is the crowning jewel in Marico's business portfolio. Marico first entered international territories through Bangladesh in 1999
Bangladesh has been Indian multinational consumer goods company Marico's first international venture. The business is today is so successful that one out of two Bangladeshis uses its products every day. Ashish Goupal, who took over as managing director of Marico Bangladesh Ltd, in July 2018 speaks about his company's success and future plans in an interview with The Daily Star.
DS: What is the present status of Marico's factory in the Mirsarai economic zone?
Ashish Goupal: Marico Bangladesh is a proud ambassador of "Made in Bangladesh" and we are exporting personal care products, including hair oils and shampoos as well as coconut oils to Nepal, Vietnam and the Middle East.
Our factory in the Mirsarai Special Economic Zone will be our third in Bangladesh to support our growth aspirations and serve the consumers of Bangladesh as well as export markets.
The Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority has already handed over the land to us, and currently, we are in the construction phase of the factory. As this is part of our manufacturing capacity expansion, we plan to accelerate the pace of development and hope to go into commercial operations by 2023.
DS: Marico is running business in many countries. Where does the Bangladesh market stand among the countries in terms of profitability?
Ashish Goupal: Marico Bangladesh (Marico) started its journey in Bangladesh 20 years ago with its flagship brand Parachute coconut oil. Currently, Marico has 37 brands across 10 categories under our Parachute Advansed, Saffola, Nihar, Parachute Just For Baby, Parachute Skinpure, Parachute Naturale, Hair Code, Livon and Studio X franchises.
As far as Marico is concerned, Bangladesh is the crowning jewel in Marico's business portfolio. Marico first entered international territories through Bangladesh in 1999 and ever since, Bangladesh has been the best performing international business of Marico group.
Currently, Marico operates in 26 countries across the emerging markets of Asia and Africa, and Bangladesh still reigns supreme in terms of growth and profitability.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, we saw positive business performance and good consumer response in the last financial year that ended in March 2021. The revenue of the company grew by 15.4 per cent while profitability grew by 17.5 per cent, year-on-year. This growth was driven by our core portfolio of coconut oil and strongly supplemented by the value-added hair oils category.
In addition, the newer dedicated portfolios like Parachute Just For Baby range of baby care products and Parachute SkinPure range of skincare products have also seen growth. Marico also expanded its Studio X international male grooming range with the launch of skin cream and pocket perfumes. Currently, Bangladesh is the most profitable unit of Marico's international business.
With the economy showing resilience amidst the second and third waves of the covid-19 pandemic and the government's prudent measures in the form of movement restrictions and vaccination efforts, the company is hopeful about delivering profit growth for its shareholders in the upcoming financial year of 2021-22.
DS: What are the potential and challenges of the fast-moving consumer goods market in Bangladesh?
Ashish Goupal: Our experience in Bangladesh has been a positive one and we are proud advocates of Bangladesh as an investment destination. We believe in Bangladesh's potential and are hence investing a further Tk 227 crore in the Mirsarai SEZ.
Bangladesh has business-friendly policies which is reflected in the growth of the economy. The government has also strongly driven efforts of digitalisation and technology, which will go a long way in enhancing the Ease of Doing Business. If the government's vision of creating an economy backed by digital governance can be executed fast, it will give the country a cutting-edge advantage.
Digitalisation simplifies several procedural hurdles and eases backlogs, such as obtaining various approvals or business licences, brings transparency to revenue collection and allows for resources to be deployed in a more constructive manner. Bangladesh is already competing with other Asian and African countries, not only in terms of attracting investment but also competing in terms of capability, technology and intellectual capital, and digitalisation is a key catalyst to the growth.
My three recommendations would be ensuring continuous open and responsive dialogue with the industry, ensuring clarity and consistency in the application of government regulations and policies, and accelerating digital economy and governance.
It is imperative that we sustain the digital transformation and access to government machinery that we have witnessed during the pandemic as the government agencies extended their whole-hearted support to ensure business continuity while maintaining safety measures.
DS: What is your plan for protecting the environment and reducing the use of plastic or carbon emissions?
Ashish Goupal: Marico, as a group, has always aimed to spearhead efforts to grow and foster sustainability through its operations. As part of Marico group, Marico Bangladesh adheres to a unified strategic framework on sustainability, the key elements of which include waste management, water management, energy efficiency, product responsibility and sustainable sourcing.
Our factory operations have already initiated efforts to implement 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) in the production process, introducing mechanisms for reusing plastic and solid waste. Our Shirirchala operations are currently zero discharge operations, and we aim to make it a completely sustainable factory by 2023 by recycling and reusing our own by-products and waste in our production. Moreover, our SEZ operations will be completely sustainable as well.
We hope that going forward, we will be able to collaborate with the government and industry on a sustainable and shared manner of ensuring extended producer responsibility and innovating to reduce virgin plastic waste generation and reduce our carbon footprint as a company.
DS: What is your plan for product diversification?
Ashish Goupal: Marico Bangladesh has expanded and diversified its product range significantly over the past few years. Even during the pandemic, we launched our Mediker SafeLife+ international hygiene range. We introduced Saffola Honey into our food range. We have expanded our core business in hair oils and have also forayed further into hair care and skincare with our Parachute Naturale range of shampoos and Parachute SkinPure range of skincare products.
We have also seen a gap in safe baby care products and responded by launching our Parachute Just For Baby range comprising lotion, oils, soap, shampoo, wash, face cream, rash cream and baby toothpaste. Since Parachute Just For Baby is certified Made Safe (by Safe Cosmetics Australia) and has 100 per cent safe ingredients like neem, olive, and almond, this range has built prompt equity among consumers.
We have also introduced our international styling brand Studio X into the market, which has a complete range of international quality grooming and styling products specifically catered to men. It includes shampoo, face wash, hair gel and deos.
We are focused on growing our core business as well as strengthening our foothold in the newer categories we have entered. We are committed to delivering growth that will benefit all stakeholders in our ecosystem.
