Finlay makers buy Mahmudur Rahman's Artisan Ceramics

Artisan Ceramics, owned by Mahmudur Rahman, the acting editor of Bangla daily Amar Desh, has been sold off to the owners of popular tea brand Finlay for Tk 100 crore.
“His wife came to us with the sale offer—we saw the factory and agreed to buy,” said Azam J Chowdhury, chairman of the Consolidated Tea and Lands Company Bangladesh.
The new owners of Artisan Ceramics now plan to upgrade the company in a bid to boost exports.
“New export markets will crop up if we can improve the quality of the products by modernising the factory,” Nader Khan, the new chairman of Artisan and a director of Consolidated Tea and Lands, said yesterday.
Artisan Ceramics was set up in 2005 by Rahman to produce porcelain tableware for the export market. The company went on to manufacture tableware for some of the big names, including Swedish retail giant IKEA.
The company, which currently employs around 600, has the capacity to churn out 5 tonnes of chinaware a month.