AG Plastic goes from rented room to producing over 2 lakh bottles daily

It was around 2012. AG Plastic Industries had its start in a rented room at Rajshahi city's Sapura Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation. Manufacturing began with just one machine and two employees.

Abdul Goni did not have to look back after investing his savings at that point. The company is expanding steadily. With more than 100 employees, AG Plastic produces an average of 2-2.25 lakh bottles each day.

The bottles are sold throughout the country, including Sylhet, Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, and Jashore as well as the other districts of North Bengal.

Companies like Akij Venture buy bottles from AG Plastic for packaging mustard oil and pickles. Buoyed by the continuous progress, Abdul Goni has also set up a printing and packaging factory.

The entrepreneur claims that his company's name will be on the list of the country's top five companies due to the quality of its products.

Ag Plastic factory requires five to six tonnes of raw material per day. Earlier, the raw material "pet resin" was imported from India, China, Taiwan, and Malaysia, but now it is purchased from Meghna Group due to the dollar crisis. Besides, his other factory, AG Printing and Packaging, produces one tonne of paper cartons per day, which are bought by local big industries.

Abdul Goni, who studied statistics, established the business using the initials of his name without any prior experience in this field. But he always had a craving to establish himself through business.

After completing his studies in Rajshahi city, he returned to his village home in Bagha upazila. There, he had taken the agency of various mobile operators. Till 2011, he secured a good commission from mobile operator business. But the good days did not last.

At that time, he got a commission of Tk40 lakh from the mobile operator business. From the commission money, he invested Tk4 lakh and opened a mobile retail shop with a partner. Being defrauded by his partner, Abdul Goni closed the business even after incurring a loss of Tk2 lakh.

Again, he went back to Rajshahi for business, but they were confused about what type of business would suit him. Later, he went to Dhaka and visited different factories. On a visit to a plastic factory at Lalbagh in Old Dhaka, he set his mind on manufacturing quality bottles. He collected virgin "pet resin" and started making bottles from it.

Abdul Goni said, after returning from Dhaka, he surveyed factories and markets and found that there was no plastic bottle manufacturing factory in Rajshahi. Then, he decided to set up a bottle factory.

At the beginning, he himself took the manufactured products to various companies. As the quality was good, customers were gradually increasing. Now his factory has 14 plastic bottle-making machines.

Abdul Goni said about 150 different designs are made in his factory in sizes ranging from 50mm to 5 litres. Depending on the size, bottles are sold for Tk2.5 to Tk36 per unit. These bottles are used to sell edible oil, medicine, honey, labang, turpentine, cosmetics, and other pickled products.

AG Plastics manufactures bottles on fully automatic machines and sells them both retail and wholesale. 

Almost all Unani and Ayurvedic factories in Rajshahi buy bottles from AG Plastic which has 300 regular big customers. Among them, SB Laboratories purchases bottles worth Tk15 lakh on average every month. Besides, Akij Venture buys bottles worth Tk20 lakh on average. ACI Company has also expressed interest in buying bottles, according to Abdul Goni.

Riding on continuous business growth, Abdul Goni purchased two plots at BSCIC Sapura. In 2019, he built a factory and office for AG Printing and Packaging on one plot. Another plot has his plastic factory. Now his packaging factory takes one tonne of paper daily, from which cartons of different sizes are made. About 50 people work in this factory.

On finding success in business despite having no previous experience, Abdul Goni said, "My father was a farmer and businessman. He had a penchant for doing business the way no one else does."

He said, "We, the small traders, have to face various problems, starting from getting loans. My bank loan is on hold due to the non-payment of a no-objection certificate from BSCIC."

"Big plots are not available as the business is growing. If my two factories get a big plot, it is possible to run the work from there. But due to the non-availability of the plot, I have to operate from two places. This is why the cost is also high."

Since the plot is small, it is not possible to create a worker-friendly environment in the factory, he continued.

"Again, it is not possible to find the exit point. I thought we would shift to the plot that has been developed in BSCIC Shilpanagari-2. But the price of the plot is higher than the whole country," he added.

Anwarul Azim, BSCIC Industrial Estate Officer in Rajshahi, said that AG Plastic's business is gradually expanding.

"It has quickly gained acceptance among customers as it produces quality products. Although the company needs more space, we cannot provide it. We are trying to give them bigger plots, though," he added.