Rise of a creative entrepreneur

He has been making a wide range of environment-friendly aesthetic products from discarded paper and jute waste for over two decades and exporting them after meeting the local demand.

Now an exporter of diversified products based on experiences from voluntary services, Rashedul Karim Munna dreams to set up the country’s largest green industry to manufacture a variety of jute products.

In an interview with The Business Post, Munna, the managing director of Creation (Private) Limited, talked about the current status and plans of his business built over the last 25 years.

Born on January 2, 1969, Munna passed SSC and HSC examinations from the then Government Technical College and Government Titumir College, respectively. Later, he graduated from Dhaka University (DU) studying management (honours) in 1992.

“I was involved with an NGO as a volunteer when I was a student. When I was a third-year student at DU, I participated in a training programme. The three-day training helped me identify what I wanted to do. I realised that a private job is not my cup of tea.

“At that time, I was helping entrepreneurs of different clusters. Working with them, I became interested in selling innovative products. Afterwards, I decided to become an entrepreneur,” Munna reminisced.

He said, “At that time, I was associated with four-five organisations for marketing the products of women entrepreneurs. Since then, I became interested in the design of handicrafts.

“I have visited 55 districts of the country and 103 countries of the world. During my visits, I always tried to gather knowledge on the heritage, skills and crafts of that particular place. My interests helped me develop connections. At that time, I didn’t decide what to do. As my father was a government job holder, my parents did not want me to do business.”

“In the beginning, I served at an NGO for two years as I preferred to work for people. But quantity is more important than quality in NGOs. At that time, 30-36 per cent interest was charged on loans given by NGOs, which was not in favour of developing a business at all,” Munna said.

“I left the NGO as I did not want to be involved in ruining people’s dreams and decided to do something on my own. I started my own business then and I am still doing authentic business. Along with me, the small entrepreneurs are also benefiting from this,” he stressed.

“At that time, I had a capital of Tk 10 lakh altogether, but I had Tk 5 lakh in cash. I thought that I could start a business to fulfil my dream of becoming an entrepreneur,” he remembered.

“I felt that Bangladesh’s craft industry would be an excellent area. I started the business thinking that there are many opportunities here. In the beginning, I chose handmade paper to start the business because it was a unique material,” he said.

The beginning

Munna continued, “In August 1997, we officially started the business journey by forming a limited company named Creation. In the beginning, we rented a shop in Eastern Plaza, the best shopping mall in Dhaka at that time, and started selling paper and wrapping paper.

“But after selling handmade paper for three months, I felt that I would not be able to make much profit. Then I planned to take this paper as a finished product directly to the consumer and thought of printing wedding cards.”

“At that time, there were only four or five shops at Purana Paltan that printed wedding cards. Instead of printing a card with a ready design, I started making the designs as per the wishes of the customers. There was a separate team of designers for this. As I produced cards to their liking, the buyers themselves promoted my products.

“At that time, almost all media outlets reported on our creative products. As a result, within two years, my company’s reputation spread across the country,” he said.

But before that, within six months of starting the business, their rented shop’s owner decided to sell it. “I didn’t have enough money to buy the shop. My father was angry with me because of the business but he still helped me. When he heard from a friend that his son’s shop is being sold, my father gave money to my mother to help me buy it for Tk 5.5 lakh.”

Munna recalled, “In 1997, I also had the opportunity to participate at the Messe Frankfurt Expo in Germany as a visitor. In 1998, I started participating in the expo as an exhibitor. Besides meeting the local demand, I always nurtured the idea of exporting my products abroad. In this regard, the opportunity to meet foreigners was important to me.”

He said that most of their products were made from handmade paper, including wedding cards, invitation cards, pads, notebooks, envelopes, art paper, painting paper, model paper, and calendars. They also made stationery products like files and folders with innovative designs.

“Multinational companies were interested in making their promotional products using this new paper. Officials of foreign embassies in Dhaka used to take Bangladeshi products made of handmade paper to their countries. At that time, I used to deliver gift items according to the orders of many embassies. Within two-three years, due to my marketing strategy, Creation Limited became an established brand,” he added.

Overcoming challenges

Munna said that the first initial three years of the business required a lot of hard work. “Sometimes, while tackling the challenge of marketing, I would realise late in the afternoon that I had not eaten all day. That was the reality of establishing a business.

“I built this business by providing good products and keeping promises, without receiving any special cooperation. The initial two-three years are always really tough for a new entrepreneur,” he said.

“I struggled a lot but did not compromise my reputation. No cheque signed by me has ever bounced in the last 25 years,” he said with pride.

“Being assisted by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), I had been participating in the Frankfurt Expo with hand-made paper products since 1998. But, in 2001, I started participating with my funding. I have been taking part regularly till now.

“Since 1998, we have been regularly exporting various stationery products including greeting cards, wrapping paper and notebooks to the international market, in addition to selling in the local market. We continued the business based on handmade paper products from 1998 to 2001. Successful operation of the business increased my confidence and I started thinking of doing something more on a larger scale,” Munna said.

In 2001, he chose the jute sector and invested about Tk 1 crore to start a new business of diversified jute products. “In the beginning, I had a factory in Tongi that I bought. Later, I directly invested Tk 15-16 crore more on four BSCIC plots in Narsingdi, setting up a six-storey jute textile factory. We also have our dyeing factory.”

“I am now working to set up a big green factory on a 15-bigha land in Gazipur; so that after the country’s LDC graduation in 2026, we can export environment-friendly products braving the challenges in the international market,” he stated.

Being responsible

Munna stressed, “One cannot become an entrepreneur all by himself. Those who have worked around me are my strength. After working together for two or three years, they voluntarily provided support as they knew that I would keep my promise.

“Being responsible, maintaining on-time delivery and quality assurance have developed our relationship with customers at home and abroad. As a result, Creation Limited is now a Tk 300 crore company.”

“I never thought about money since starting the business. Our business partners contributed to the position we have reached now,” he added.

Those who want to become new entrepreneurs should study the sector they want to join. There was no craft store in Dhaka that he did not visit when he started his craft business, Munna said.

“It helped me bring new and unique products to the market. Most entrepreneurs act as followers. Small capital is not the problem. If you can bring unique and innovative products, the market will pull the business up even if it is small,” he shared from experience.

“My knowledge about the strengths of the clusters in Bogura, Rangpur, Noakhali, Manikganj and Dhaka helped me a lot in making craft products, including various jute products,” he added.

Munna said, “My strategy was not to work without local raw materials. Jute mills have waste, especially the lower base, and the yarn of jute is wasted. We are making craft products using these.

“We have been participating in different international fairs every year to maintain the export of diversified products. After attending the Frankfurt Expo, I researched other international fairs.

“I did not have to spend from the existing capital of the business to participate in the fairs. I worked in the event decoration sector till 2005. I participated in these fairs with the money I earned from there,” he said.

He continued, “Now the business has expanded a lot. I am now working with nine clusters. Products are being manufactured in these clusters in different areas including Manikganj, Savar, Rangpur, Barishal, Gazipur and Narsingdi.

“But it’s not possible to provide variety to customers with jute mill products only. For this, I used the creativity of the people in the clusters. I went to various fairs, brought the designs and made products according to the designs by the workers of the clusters, initially starting with bags and gardening products made of jute.”

“I have been exporting gardening products to Japan and Italy since the beginning. Costing is a big issue in exporting. I took care of the cost following such a strategy that after one year of exporting, I started making a profit,” Munna said.

“At present, I am exporting diversified products to 29 countries. I have participated in hundreds of fairs so far,” he added.

About the industry

Munna said that the major reason behind this industry’s slow growth is that there are no buying houses for such products in the country.

“We are not making the products our competitors are making. We now have about 4,000 types of products. We emphasise manufacturing the products which India is weak in manufacturing,” he said.

“There are many possibilities and opportunities to do better in the coming days. We have plans to increase exports by making various products from jute, coconut coir, water hyacinth, and banana stem fibres. Already products made from coconut coir are being exported. Export demand will increase if unique fabric is used,” he added.

Munna said that everyone ignores handicrafts as diversified products. “I want to make semi-industrial products. I want to increase the use of jute in mainstream products to manufacture and export aesthetic products. For example, soundproof partitions can be made using jute fibre as an alternative to glass fibre.”

“To take the jute industry to a different level in the coming days, we want to do value-added diversification. We dream of using jute fibre in manufacturing core products such as tin, furniture and car. Our team is now at a stable stage. Now it will be possible to diversify the sector more to take it to a different level,” he expressed hope.

Awards

Rashedul Karim Munna clinched the DCCI Business Award in 2005 for his innovative manufacturing and the HSBC Business Award for Best Exporter in the SME category in 2009.

He also received the Agro-award for Best Innovative Exporter in Bangladesh in 2014 from the Standard Chartered Bank.

He was also awarded the Best Entrepreneur and Exporter of Jute Diversified Products Manufacture and Exporter in Bangladesh for three consecutive years – 2017, 2018 and 2019 – and in 2023 by the Ministry of Jute and Textile.