Home ›› 28 Jan 2022 ›› Front
Locally manufactured products of little-known or unknown brands occupy half of the socket extension market in Bangladesh for their cheaper prices compared with products of established local brands and imported ones.
The demand for socket extension, the most common household electrical accessory better known as multi-plug among the masses, is growing faster with the increased use of electrical and electronic appliances in households in both rural and urban Bangladesh.
According to the market players, unknown or little-known Bangladeshi brands grab the market by more than 50 per cent and Bangladeshi established brands occupy 30 per cent and the remaining portion is grabbed by a Chinese brand, Many, and other imported brands.
The market size of socket extension or multi-plug is about Tk 150 crore with more than 15 per cent yearly growth, said Md Kamal Hussain Mridul vice president of the Bangladesh Electrical Merchandise Manufacturers Association.
“Just a decade ago, Chinese products had dominated more than 80 per cent of the multi-plug market in Bangladesh but now local products dominate more than 80 per cent of the market,” he said.
Locally manufactured socket extensions also have a market in Myanmar and Indian states of Assam and Tripura for the cheaper price, he added.
Md Afsar Uddin Mazumder, a director of the Bangladesh Electrical Association, said they have no official data but 25 to 30 small and medium enterprises meet more than half of the market demand with their little-known brands.
Md Ismail Hossain, vice president of Bangladesh Electrical Association, refused to accept the term ‘non-branded products’ for the products made by small enterprises. “They are making their own brands which are yet to be established. Small enterprises played the pivotal role in booming our economy,” he said.
The small entrepreneurs said they try to maintain safety and security measures for their products but the established brand owners accuse the “grey market traders” of using poor quality raw materials in their products that make the products cheaper.
SM Mahbubur Rahman, a professor of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said now small entrepreneurs are making a considerable volume of electrical products but they cannot test their products because of the unavailability of low-cost testing facilities. It is a threat to the sustainability of their products, he said.
“The government should assist the small entrepreneurs in producing quality products so that safety and security are ensured,” he added.
At Nawabpur wholesale market, socket extensions of Max Line brand are most demanded. Among other brands of small entrepreneurs Best Line, Power Line, Omax Line, Victor, BD line, Fresh, Gold light, Intel, Tata, Taraful, Easy, Hi-Tech, etc are available in the market.
Among established brands Walton, Superstar, Energypac, Click of Pran-RFL, and only Chinese brand Many are available in the market.
Price of cheaper socket extensions range between Tk 100 and Tk 300 and the products established brands range between Tk 400 and Tk 2000, the sellers said.
Retailer Md Hassan came to Nawabpur to buy socket extensions for selling at his shop. His consignment featured a significant portion of Max Line’s products. “I have been selling Max Line products for the past five years but did not get any complaints from the consumers,” said Hassan when asked about the reason behind buying the particular brand.
Md Main Uddin, the owner of Max Line brand, said, “I have been struggling for more than seven years to standardise my products to make it more attractive to the customers by maintaining all safety and security measures.”
Seeing the demand for his product, some people are making counterfeit products with his brand name, alleged Main Uddin.
There are more than 25 small entrepreneurs like him at Nawabpur Road, Dhaka’s hub of electrical products, claimed Main Uddin.
Main Uddin said most of the buyers are not conscious about the quality and safety of the product they are buying. Their ignorance and negligence encourage low-quality products in the market, he added.
Md Sohel Rana, the chief business officer of Walton Electrical Appliances, said, they have about 20 models of socket extension and they have lowered the price range to compete with the cheaper products in the market. “Now, we are trying hard to give the customers an affordable price maintaining quality,” said Sohel Rana.
He said they sold about 2.20 lakh units of socket extension and hoped that this year the figure would become more than double.
Energypac CEO Md Nurul Aktar, also a director of the company, said that established brands are not ruling the accessories market because of the price gap despite having all safety and security measures.
“We import quality raw materials paying huge tax but in the grey market, traders do not bother buying quality raw materials and do not pay tax. So they can sell their product at a cheap price,” said Nurul Aktar.
Energeypac has only four types of socket extension with the price ranging between Tk 410 and Tk 1,250, said Md Belal Hossain, assistant manager (brand and marketing) of Energypac.
Superstar is a popular brand for electrical accessories but they have a few models of socket extension with a price range of Tk320 and Tk 520. “We have introduced a new range of socket extension replacing previous costly models. We sold about 1 lakh pieces socket extension last year,” said Md Rony Mollah, senior executive (marketing) of the company.
Md Yeasin Ali, manager at MS Trading Co at Nawabpur, said that now the business was slightly low. “Normally we sell socket extension worth more than Tk 4 lakh but now the figure is between Tk 2 lakh and Tk 2.5 lakh. Most of the people buy non-branded products because of the huge price gap,” he added.
Md Mohibullah Babu, store officer of Superstar, said low prices are behind the popularity of non-brand products. “People can buy 2-3 pieces of a non-branded product at the price of a single branded one.”
Md Riad, owner of Riad and Rifat Enterprise at Sundarban Square Super Market in Gulistan, said, “We sell only C-Top socket extension which is our own brand. We are also a dealer of Best Line. On average, we sell socket extension worth between Tk 2.5 and Tk 3 lakh per month”.
