Woodpecker eyes carving niche in engraving market

With high ambitions in the field of laser engraving on wood, North South University graduate Nasir Uddin, a co-owner of “Woodpecker”, speaks to The Business Post’s Mehedi Hasan and Mohammad Nahian about his dream of carving out a niche for himself as a leading businessman in the sector

The Business Post: Briefly discuss your journey of being an entrepreneur?

Nasir Uddin: Both I and my friend Shah Abidur Rahman graduated from North South University. We studied business studies for four years where we were engaged in a lot of extracurricular activities, mainly debating and cultural programmes. While managing those events, we got to deal with a lot of vendors, people, marketplaces like Nilkhet, Old Dhaka and got to meet up with a lot of people and see their small business first hand.

TBP: Why have you chosen doing something rather than getting a formal job?

NU: We were already involved in dealing with suppliers and had an idea on how to start a small or medium business. Before starting this business I worked with The Dhaka Tribune — one of the leading English newspapers in the country while my friend worked with BMB Mott McDonald, which is a prominent international consultancy firm. Later, both of us decided to spend our working hours building our own business and we decided that it’s better to do something of our own than landing in good corporate jobs.

TBP: Discuss about your business?

NU: We have laser engraving machines, which are multipurpose instruments. We use wood as our primary engraving medium. Clients give us photographs that they want us to engrave on a specific wooden product. We have a plethora of wooden items in our catalogue and the number is increasing every day. Thus we customise wooden gift items as we work with personal photographs, drawings etc.

TBP: How do you get involved in this business?

NU: Upon completion of studies, we decided that we should team up and start a unique business ourselves. In the last few years, while doing some event management jobs for our university, we found out that laser engraving machines do a very fine job, etching whatever design an engraver wants on wood. The final output looked very lucrative. Thus we began thinking of presenting woodworking to the market. From there, we brainstormed and named our company “Woodpecker”. Then we came up with a business model of engraving actual photographs on wooden products using laser engravers.

TBP: What were the perceptions of your friends and family?

NU: In the beginning, most of my family members and friends were not approving of our business idea and they all suggested joining good corporate jobs. Our first product was bought by a friend, and without our friends and families, we could not have gotten the traction required to create our image in the sector.

TBP: As a young entrepreneur, how did you find the environment for a start-up?

NU: In Bangladesh it’s not that welcoming even though there are a lot of small medium enterprises. You might get support from your near and dear ones, but unscrupulous businesspeople copy a lot of our woodworking which is devoid of quality. We often face the problem of the market flooded with cheap works on wooden furniture; and I am afraid that there will be a lot of businesses literally copying all of your business model, product and even the name. Sometimes the logo is also copied which is very disheartening. My suggestions for the future entrepreneurs are to stick to your own business model and don’t try to copy others for short-term gains.

TBP: What are your future plans about your business?

NU: Our portfolio is getting bigger every month even during the pandemic. We are planning to diversify our collection of products while trying to reach out to international markets. We envision the future in such a way that clients will find any product they are dreaming of. Besides, we are increasing our workforce so that we can represent our country by competing with foreign brands.