Home ›› 07 Aug 2022 ›› Business Connect
Becoming a social worker was his dream. He was ecstatic to achieve the goal so that he can bring changes into people’s lives in different ways.
Indomitable willingness to work for the country and for people’s wellbeing became stronger after he completed the Secondary School Certificate examination from Adamjee Cantonment Public School.
With time, his thirst for the goal became deeply ingrained and he joined different types of associations such as Anti-Smoking Campaign Association (ADHUNIK) to raise awareness against smoking.
He walked 264 kilometers from Dhaka to Chittagong to make people aware of the harm of smoking. He also formed the Amlan Social Welfare Association (ASWA) with some friends to remain connected and to do something for the society.
After completing graduation and post-graduation in management from Dhaka University, he tried to establish a Library and organised concerts to raise funds. The aim was to encourage people to read books and work to build a knowledge-based society.
But SM Khaled Hossain, now a successful businessman and Managing Director of Snowtex Group, failed to attain the goal due to some unknown reasons.
Failures in early career can open up a new opportunity for someone to explore and paves ways to become more successful in the future. It is reflected in Khaled’s life of becoming a multi-millionaire businessman.
Being failed to gain momentum in my steps, with the consultation of a brother Khaled joined a newspaper as a reporter but it could not sustain.
Having failed to get footing in any initiatives, while friends were joining high salaried jobs I joined Bishwo Shahitto Kendro with a salary of Tk 2,500 per month.
After seven to eight month I did not find interest and left the job. I was to some extent frustrated with my then status and future direction of life. My friends were joining at high paid jobs but I did not see hope.
With the given context, I decided to join the job so that I can at least bear my living costs amid a financial crisis.
To materialise the target, I frantically searched for jobs. Every morning I used to buy newspapers and drop CVs by 8:30am at companies so that I could get a call first.
With my efforts, I got a call from BTI, Share Trading Company as a management trainee. Later, I got a call from an Italian buying house. They had imposed a condition that the candidate must have a motorcycle.
Finally, I joined there at Tk 5,000 per month. But the job was not satisfactory to me. So I left the job and started searching again.
Just within a gap of two weeks I joined a carton factory as marketing executive as I did not want to waste time. Joining as a marketing executive in accessories factories helped me learn the ins and outs of the business.
My thought was why I should always run after high salaried jobs.
Later, after one year, with my few friends we tried to start a label factory, but it was not successful and three of us left the business as I sensed it would be quite impossible to make it a successful one. Ending was not good and none of the partners could gain from the business.
Once again, another friend formed a partnership. As usual, it also failed.
The turning point
After a series of failures in partnership, I concentrated on having a venture of mine. I started an accessories supplying business in 2020. It was the starting point of Snowtex.
Starting was not so rosy; rather it was too difficult. I was trying but there was no connection with the business people. However, I had knowledge working in a buying house and knew the process of the business properly.
Later, with firm determination Snowtex launched a buying house on a small scale but it was not easy to manage work orders. But Khaled never compromised with quality of products, competitive prices, and on-time delivery. These paved ways to success and to gain buyers’ trust. Hard work, honesty, and commitment made Snowtex a success one.
Making a fortune
The fortune came in 2004 for Snowtex, when Berne, a US-based buyer who used to take support from Snowtex, extended their aid to build a joint venture factory where the total CAPEX investment was made by the brand and the working capital arranged by Snowtex.
It was truly a reward for the hard work, workmanship, and professionalism of the small team of dreamers called Snowtex. They established their first factory named Snowtex Apparels Ltd. in 2005, later they established Cut & Sew Ltd in 2011.
Building on the success they established Snowtex Outerwear Ltd in 2014 and Snowtex Sportswear in 2019, and the journey of triumph goes on.
Starting with 5,000pc export orders in 2004 currently, Snowtex group has 180 production lines, 1,100 machines, 19,500 human resources.
Our business motto
The motto of doing business is not only making profits, but to ensure the wellbeing of people, who run the factories, said Khaled. To me, business is social welfare. I am doing my social welfare through business and it gives peace of mind.
Business is a tool for social transformation and I make strides to positively impact lives of our workers.
Snowtex offers a bunch of incentives such as free lunch for all employees and workers, provident fund, production incentive bonus, innovation reward, attendance bonus, subsidy on sanitary napkins, work facility for persons with disability.
Certified green factory
As it cares for the environment for a better earth, in manufacturing goods, the Snowtex Group reuses and recycles water as well as consumes less electricity. Snowtex Outerwear and Snowtex Sportswear are Platinum-rated LEED green factories certified by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).
In line with the green certification requirement, Snowtex uses energy-efficient lights, VRF AC, Servo motors, resulting in energy consumption reduction by up to 56 per cent annually.
In addition to eco-friendly manufacturing systems, Snowtex uses a state-of-the-art 290kW rooftop solar PV to reduce its carbon emissions.
Snowtex Group received “Bangabandhu Green Factory Award” for their outstanding performance in sustainability and eco-friendly practices.
Establishing lifestyle brand
With the success in the export markets, Khaled established local brand SaRa Lifestyle Ltd to cater the domestic consumers’ demands in 2018.
The main objective of this brand is to create a positive image in fashion which will open a new door for the garment sector in Bangladesh. SaRa lifestyle aims to deliver quality garments at an affordable price to its customers.
Developing homegrown leaders
Even after a 40 years journey, Bangladesh is still dependent on foreigners for top managerial positions in factories, which is a threat to the sustainability of the industry.
In the early stage of the garment industry in Bangladesh, there was a need for foreign employees. But this is no longer true with the flow of time.
As there was no option in the early stage of industry, exporters had to appoint executives from Sri Lanka, India, China, Pakistan, Taiwan, and South Korea to develop products. But now we have our own expertise and should focus on developing from local sources.
We are running our factories with fully local expertise. It is our strength. We hired fresh graduates and trained them, he added.
Another good thing is a good number of universities introduced their curriculum based on the garment industry such as Industrial Production Engineering, Merchandising, Fashion Technology, Lean Management, Apparel manufacturing, and Textile along with some diploma courses.
However, to fulfill the need for leadership, we need to make sure that the graduates are getting adequate practical knowledge along with the academic knowledge.
It is high time to give the leadership to our own human resource by hiring Management Trainee Officers from the fresh graduates. As they are well educated, they are very much able to come out as top leaders by learning from the beginning. It is easier for them to cope with the factory culture, said Khaled.
On the other hand, we can make them capable to lead our industry by making them go through all the stages of garments and proper training, he added.
Mechanism to increase efficiency
To remain competitive in the global export market, there is no alternative to a productive enhancement. In doing so, Snowtex have their own in-house lab to inspect and test every item they produce and provide training to increase productivity and workers skills.
It also has its own automated fabric inspection unit. In addition to this, Snowtex has established its design center in collaboration with their brand partners.
To maximise efficiency, productivity Snowtex has its own digital system of tracking production data, bottlenecks, machine breakdown record, fall of production in a certain line, and installing IoT devices in every machine to track more granular level data.
Exports items and destinations
Their main exportable items are Jackets, Sportswear, active wear, ski wear, swimwear, hunting wear, real down, fake down, seam sealing, insulation, softshell, thermo bonding, welded, flame retardant, functional wear, coveralls, overalls, rainwear, Safety wear, which are being exported to around 50 countries of the world including USA, Canada, UK, EU, and Japan.
Good practices
Snowtex always thinks about the well-being of employees and cares about the earth. As a part of these, Snowtex has a set of good practices inside the factory.
These good practices are as free lunch for all employees and workers, provident fund, lift support for all employees, digitized happiness survey, production incentive bonus, Innovation reward, attendance bonus, CFC free factory, subsidy on sanitary napkins, free iron supplement for the female worker, work facility for disable person etc. Besides, outside the factory, they are doing some CSR work like – providing donations for the schools, mosques, graveyards, conducting tree plantation programs, etc.
Future plans
Dreams never end. Business in apparel will continue but diversification in business is crucial to grow further, said Khaled.
We are now focusing on producing more high end products, which are mostly used to produce by China, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea.
Beyond the apparel sector, I am thinking of diversifying business in sectors such as Pharmaceuticals, Information Technology, Real Estate, which will take our company to a new height in the next 20 years in the globe, said Khaled.
But the business should be sustainable. Money is not a matter of investment, what we need is knowledge to enter into the business.
