Quality pays off in the long run: ACI chairman

In today's world, consumers are very conscious. Many consider the quality of products and compliance of sellers while making buying decisions apart from taking prices into consideration. Many companies are aware of that and ACI Ltd is one of them.

In fact, when it started journey 25 years ago, the moto of the company was “quality first”, which paid off in the long run.

Beginning with only Tk 60 crore in 1992, ACI closed the financial year of 2016-17 with a turnover of Tk 4,766 crore and a net profit of Tk 106 crore.

“When I got ACI, it was like a wonderful toy in my hand,” said M Anis Ud Dowla, chairman of ACI Group of Companies, on the occasion of the company's 25 years of operations.

“But the right thing I did is having a guardian, not doing whatever I wanted to do after getting freedom. I controlled myself and I made quality my guardian,” he told The Daily Star in an interview recently.

ACI began its operations in 1992 after local management of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) acquired 70 percent of ICI's shares. Dowla was group managing director of ICI in Bangladesh at the time of the divestment.

Since then, ACI, under the management of Dowla, has expanded to areas spanning from pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, agri-business and farm machinery and organised retailing.

Today, ACI operates through 14 subsidiaries and three joint ventures, with 8,364 people working for the conglomerate.

ACI enjoys leadership in aerosol, antiseptic liquid, mosquito coils and salt categories, according to the company data.

It operates the country's largest retail chain Shwapno in Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet.

Dowla said ACI started with a mission to improve the quality of lives of people and adopted values.

It started with pharmaceuticals. In 1994, it ventured into crop protection chemicals and household insecticides.

ACI entered into the baby diaper business in 2017. Apart from marketing salt and flour, ACI added spices, traditional snacks and edible oil over time.

In 2016, it entered into the marketing of rice by setting up a mill in Naogaon. In the same year, ACI signed up for marketing of motorcycles by Japanese manufacturer Yamaha.

ACI received the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) certification ISO 9001 Quality Management System in 1995. Five years later, it obtained ISO 14001 Environmental Management System accreditation, becoming the first Bangladeshi company to have them.

“I have made the ISO my guardian really. This is an obligation to maintaining standards once one gets certification from the ISO.”

The focus on maintaining quality and remaining complaint helped ACI win the trust of customers in the last 25 years.

“And it has been possible as the company's management focused on maintaining the principle of making quality products, by giving up the greed to make money quickly.”

“Once you give up greed and go for your principle, you may not make as much profit but you will have a solid base of customers,” he said.

Dowla earned his bachelor's degree in physics from Dhaka University and a master's degree in public administration from the University of Karachi. He said the company's focus on fairness and transparency paid off.

“The biggest advantage is the customers trust us because of all these good names. So if I market a product it is immediately taken up.”

He expected ACI would continue its growth trajectory.

“We are managing ourselves very well. We have an aggressive management, very forward-looking, adaptive to new technology. So, we have all the right elements in place. People preferred to be at ACI. We are a preferred employer.”

“ACI is well-poised and has matured in the last 25 years. We should be able to leapfrog into the future with tremendous growth.”

Dowla is bullish about the growth potential of the retail sector, which stands at Tk 150,000 crore annually.

“This is a huge opportunity. This is the potential for us from just one sector,” he said.

A 10 percent stake in the market would generate Tk 15,000 crore in turnover -- a sum no company in Bangladesh has yet to hit.

He said like other companies, ACI's success will also depend on economic factors and development of the country. Unfavourable economic factors may limit the growth of the company.

“But we have made sure that there is nothing to limit our growth,” said Dowla.

The ACI chair said the country is a very good example of development.

The company plans to take part in the country's journey towards becoming a middle-income country and a developed nation.

“We want to be at the front of this development.”

“This will require huge investment and a huge opportunity for people to improve their income, which means there will be more consumption and we will be there to serve,” he said.

The noted entrepreneur urged the government to strengthen technical education system and establish a one-stop service to serve foreign investors.

He said ACI has grown organically in the last 25 years and the company's growth story makes them wonder, sometimes.

“We have grown reasonably big, but the opportunity in Bangladesh is tremendous.”

When asked where he would like to see ACI after next 25 years, Dowla said, “Sky is the limit. We are on the right track because we have touched the right cords.”