Rahimafrooz eyes battery exports to rich nations

Rahimafrooz is set to double its annual automotive battery production capacity to reach 25 lakh units, designed to capture a market share in developed countries by May.

The Tk 110 crore project, Rahimafrooz Globatt Ltd, nears completion and is under the company's global expansion plans.

“We are going to double our annual production capacities for automotive batteries by May. The product has been designed specially to capture the rich nation markets, including North America, Europe, Korea, Australia,” said Munawar Misbah Moin, group director of the company.

“This is the first-ever initiative of the company's global expansion plan, under which we are producing batteries targeting the markets in developed countries,” he said.

Rahimafrooz is also going to start exporting the newly produced automotive batteries to those countries by June for the first time, said Munawar.

“The Global Expansion Plan was a result of our success in the export market,” he said. “Now we need concentrated initiatives to reach the mature global markets and grow to create global footprints,” he maintained.

The project received the country's first-ever equity investment from Frontier Fund, a local partner of Brummer and Partners, Sweden's largest hedge fund manager, in January to develop its automotive battery export business.

An equity fund is generally invested in firms by purchasing certain equity shares of those companies and sharing their profit with the investors. Investors can recover the fund only when the companies sell their shareholdings to other investors.

Thirty percent of the project cost has been raised from equity investments from Global Holdings Ltd and Brummer and Partners.

“We have established a world class manufacturing plant under the global strategic plan for our expansion plan,” he said.

Rahimafrooz Globatt Ltd, situated in Ishwardi EPZ, uses the latest technology including business software solution applications and services.

As many as 400 people have been employed in the project, an environment-friendly venture, Munawar said.

“After the first phase of the project, we dream to establish global plants, although it will not be an easy task under the existing rules and regulations set by the government,” said Munawar.

Currently, Rahimafrooz produces 12 lakh pieces of automotive batteries per year, which are used to meet the local demand and are exported to different countries.

Rahimafrooz was founded in 1954 by late AC Abdur Rahim. It started its journey as a small trading company, but over the decades, it has grown in size, scale, and diversification.

Currently, the group has seven operating companies, three other business ventures and a non-profit social enterprise.

Rahimafrooz is the pioneer in producing industrial batteries, solar power and IPS (instant power system) in the country. The company also spearheaded the export of batteries to more than 40 countries.

The new batteries will be suited to the needs of the developed nations and their markets.

Now the company exports batteries to 18 countries, including India and Singapore, on a regular basis, which is produced specially for the regional nations and their infrastructure.

Rahimafrooz has sales and distribution units in several Indian cities, including Ahmedabad, Delhi and Calcutta.