Fashioning her own fortune: From tailor to garments queen

Kamrunnahar Lipi was married off at the age of 16 when she was still in college. Her marriage lasted only a few days. 

Before she had even got the chance to fully enjoy the carefree abandon of her younger years, she was divorced, driven back to her village in Anantapur, living in the house of her father, retired primary school teacher Ali Usman, where she was accorded no sympathy, but showered only with scorn by relatives and neighbours.

Now 41-years-old, that phase of Lipi's life will only ever be a footnote in her history.   

These days the Netrokona resident is more preoccupied with running two of her garments factories under her company "Narinetra Karupanya".

Her factories - one in Netrokona Sadar and the other in Dhaka - supply products to different parts of the world, including the UK, Malaysia, India, the UAE and Italy.

Her growing empire has not gone unnoticed. 

In 2014, she received the Joyeeta Award, an initiative of the Department of Women Affairs, for her contributions to the country's economy. Six years later, she received the Kolkata-Bangladesh Friendship award. This September, she was also bestowed the Sheikh Hasina Youth Volunteer Award by the Ministry of Youth and Sports. She was given the honours in front of the prime minister herself, who was in attendance as the chief guest.

Lipi's business acumen, ability to read market trends and undaunted ambition are the three cornerstones of her success. Another is, of course, her tenacity, without which nothing else would matter.

And it is her tenacity that has brought her this far. Lipi, to put it simply, refused to quit no matter what life threw at her. Her early struggles were then just the exposition.

Photo: TBS

Act II: Rising action

Kamrunnahar Lipi had decided early on that she would shape her own destiny. In 2002, she took a training course on sewing from the Department of Youth Development. This was the part of her script where her character really began to take shape. 

Although she had a knack for the skill, she still needed some capital to make something of it.

At a whim, she moved to Dhaka and joined a garments factory, defying her parents' numerous protestations against this decision.

Before she could even get the hang of things, her brothers decided it was time for her to come back.

Seventeen days into her new profession, Lipi was shamed back to her village. 

Sitting still, however, did not sit easy with her. She began giving private tuition, but after a while realised that it wasn't bringing her enough money. 

She got herself a job at a local non-government organisation. After working there for around six months, she was offered only Tk600 as salary.

It wasn't a lot, but Lipi stuck with it. In time her salary rose to Tk3,000. The day she got that money, she went out and bought some trimmings and beads. These she would stitch on to saris and three pieces. 

There wasn't much of a demand for these things in her locality, so she had to sell the clothes in Dhaka.

Her venture wasn't as successful as she had hoped; despite working long hours for her two sources of income, she still didn't have enough money to buy a sewing machine, something she believed would be a game changer for her.

Act III: Climax

One day, Sohel, then one of Lippi's colleagues and now her husband, borrowed a sewing machine from someone and gave it to Lipi. 

It was a gift that would keep on giving. This moment would be her climax, because from here on in, there was no going back.

Armed with the object of her desire, Lipi began speaking to some footpath vendors to get a sense of what the market demand was. 

On their advice, she started making clothes for babies. She made fatuas, pants and nimas from discarded pieces of cloth that she would buy from the local tailor shops.

She would sell her wares to the footpath vendors. While Lipi was making a name for herself as the newest tailor in the block, she ran into one Mollah Miah of Chakpara area of the district town. 

Mollah Miah's business was making dresses for babies and children. Impressed with Lipi's handiwork, he asked her to make him 100 pairs of pants for kids every day. For her work, Lipi was paid Tk2 per pair of pants. 

After doing this for a while, Lipi saved up enough money to buy two new sewing machines. She then hired three women from the area to work the machines. Lipi trained them in the art, teaching them to make 29 different items. 

Afterwards, with Tk800 as capital, she purchased 10 kilogrammes of fabrics from Dhaka's Keraniganj. 

She began mass producing the children's pants and wholesaling those. Her initial investment of Tk800 saw an enviable return of Tk2,500. Then she used that money to buy more cloth, selling the finished products for Tk5,000.

Lipi had just cracked the code and her capital began to grow, along with her investments. 

But, Lipi wasn't one to rest on her laurels. It was time to make more moves.

Photo: Courtesy

Act IV: Falling action

In 2009, when the government announced a ban on the use of polythene bags, there was a sudden surge in the demand for tissue bags (shopping bags) in the market. 

At first, Lipi had little idea about this. She once went to a shop and bought a shopping bag to see what can be done. She then got to learning the techniques of sewing, cutting and making the bags. She also learned screen printing at the same time.

This is the part where all the roads she had taken and those hadn't would come together to chart her course for the years ahead. And the stakes were only getting higher.

She then bought some tissue cloths from Dhaka and started manufacturing her own shopping bags, which she initially supplied to the domestic market.

Then came another chance encounter, this time with a Saudi Arabia expatriate, who gave her an order for 20,000 shopping bags. 

It was the kind of order that could instantly change her fortunes. She was now strapped to the rocket, but there was a crisis of fuel. Lipi did not have enough capital to buy the raw materials needed for such a large offer.

This is when she took a leap of faith. Lipi turned to her father, who by this time was in awe of what his daughter was capable of, and mortgaged some of his land.

She also took a Tk30,000 loan from the Department of Youth Development. 

Even then, the money wasn't enough. This is when she began to sound out private banks, soon securing a Tk50,000 loan. 

She now had enough to accept the large order of shopping bags. Upon delivery of the consignment, she was left with a profit of Tk 1.2 lakh. It was an incredible amount of money; money that could be used to generate even more income.

Instead of splurging on baubles and luxuries, Lipi instead used her profit to repay her loans and buy around two-and-a-half hundred acres of land where she set up a tin shed factory.

It was a small and humble operation, but by 2013, she was supplying shopping bags to Mymensingh, Kishoreganj, Chattogram, Sylhet and other areas of the country, including Netrokona. 

Many large companies also expressed an interest in buying her bags, but they were all put off by the tin shed factory. Realising that her factory was holding her back, Lipi now dreamt of making a building to house her new unit. 

After a few days, she had accumulated savings of Tk2.7 lakh, which she used to buy 1,200 decimals of land from her father.

She could almost see her shiny new factory in the empty expanse that she had just purchased. She could also, almost, taste the success that was about to come. 

Continuing with her work nonstop, by 2014 Lipi had quite a sizable amount in her bank account. 

By this time, she had also decided to branch out from shopping bags. This desire was further emboldened by the factory building she had once dreamed up, which was not closer to reality. 

At a cost of Tk 32 lakhs, Lipi's factory was near completion. Built on 700 decimals of land, this is where Lipi began manufacturing jeans, gabardine pants, t-shirts and trousers. 

The only thing holding her back was the lack of skilled workers in the area. She also did not have a reliable supply chain for raw materials in the area.

The Netrokona factory was mainly used for sewing work, with the finished product being made in Kuril of Dhaka.

To plug the gap, Lipi rented out a building in the Kuril Bishwa Road area which began to function as her finishing centre.

Now that she had the goods, she only needed more buyers. This was another side of the business that Lipi handled on her own. 

She can be found everyday glued to her phone or in meetings, making deals for shopping bags, clothing, masks and other items with buyers in Bangladesh and around the world.

Photo: Courtesy

Act V: Denouement for now

Today, Lipi conducts monthly transactions of Tk4-5 crore. She always has goods worth Tk70-80 lakh in stocks. 

Her restlessness is eased by her growing, diverse portfolio. She procured another 77 decimals of land, of which 31 decimals are used for fish farming. 

Her factory has added another 50 sewing machines, alongside other different machineries. 

Lipi's workforce has grown from three to 150. Of them, 113 are women. 

Many of her employees are divorcees, widows, destitutes, victims of abuse or dropouts, forced from education by poverty. She has also hired a few persons with disabilities. 

Many of her employees have also actively pursued their education with renewed interest. It's a culture she cultivates.

"If someone has to go to an educational institution, I give them that opportunity. Even if someone lacks the money to do so, we try to help them as much as possible. I want those with an opportunity to study to make full use of it. Those that don't, I want them to be financially independent," she said. 

Lipi, who had to drop out of college due to her first marriage, herself went back to the classroom and got an Honours in LLB.

"While managing the business, I realised that I needed to prepare myself a little more. So I worked in the factory during the day and studied at night."

On a personal front, as her business grew, Lipi decided it was time for her to find a life partner, who would lend her a hand looking after her enterprise.

Her husband, Sohel, looks after the Kuril factory, while Lipi takes care of the Netrokona unit.

The couple are also blessed with a four-year-old son, Mahfuz Ahmed.

When not at home, Lipi can be found at her factory, where she still sews, cuts and maintains contacts with her customers. She hasn't forgotten her past and neither does she want to. 

Although she has written quite the script for herself, in terms of her life story, Lipi feels her work is far from finished.

She dreams of an international standard factory complex which gives workers a good quality canteen, a daycare centre, recreation area, separate toilets for men and women, gas connection, adequate lighting, etc. 

Lipi said that foreign buyers are more interested when the factories they are dealing with are of a certain standard. 

A factory complex would also cut out the need to use a third party to export products, as then it can be done directly.

Besides, she also wants to set up a factory in the BSCIC Industrial City of Netrakona, which is already in process.

And finally, she wants to remove the last few obstacles, such as having a good enough stock so that they don't have to run to Dhaka all the time.

On the lack of workers, she also has plans to make a training centre, ensuring a regular pool of skilled workers to pick from.

Lipi knows that there is a lot of the road still left ahead. As she marches forward, she wants to take her community with her. 

And for now, this is how her incredible life story is wrapped up. There can be no doubts, however, that there will be a sequel. After all, Kamrunahar Lipi isn't a person who has ever stopped dreaming and doing.