Kanger in JV to tap Bangladesh bamboo furniture market
GROWING DEMAND: Company scheduled to start operations at end of first quarter of next year
(From left) Kanger International deputy chairman chairman director in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
KANGER International Bhd is making a foray into the Bangladesh bamboo furniture market by setting up a jointventure (JV) company with Bangladesh-based AK Khan Plywood Company Ltd.
The JV company, to be named AK Kanger Pte Ltd, will start operations at the end of first quarter of next year once the two parties conclude their negotiations.
Kanger executive director Syed Hazrain Jamalullail said the company,
managing director
AK Khan Plywood Company managing and chief coordination officer Sherfehnaz Khan at the signing ceremony which manufactured and traded bamboo flooring and furniture, hoped to tap Bangladesh’s growing middle-class market.
Initially, it would entail spelling out the distribution of Kanger’s existing products through both companies’ networks, followed by contract-manufacturing of bamboo furniture and venturing into bamboo plantations, leading to the manufacturing of bamboo products in Bangladesh, he said.
“For the first phase of collaboration, there is not much of an investment that we will be putting in, as it will be more of a tie-up where we will share our networks and marketing,” said Syed Hazrain.
“We are pursuing two routes for plantation. One is to take a longterm lease of public forestry lands and the other will be setting up our own private plantations.
“We will be able to tap into the plantations only in 2025 as the bamboo plants need a maturity period of five years before they can be harvested,” said AK Khan chief coordination officer Sherfehnaz Khan.
Sherfehnaz said the JV company would tap into Kanger’s extensive intellectual property of bamboo manufacturing, not only for the products but also for the plantations in terms of how to harvest and crop rotation, among others.
On the home front, Syed Hazrain said, Kanger was also looking at having its own bamboo plantation in Malaysia and currently in talks with various government agencies and state governments for land acquisitions.
He said by the end of next year, the company should have a bamboo plantation operational in Malaysia.
AK Khan Company Ltd, which wholly-owns AK Khan Plywood, is the pioneer in plywood products in Bangladesh and commands 100 per cent of the plywood segment there.
Kanger’s stock closed at 30 sen on the Bursa yesterday.
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