The ceramics industry in Bangladesh has a huge potential in terms of sustained infrastructural development the country has witnessed over the years. The construction sector has boomed, thanks to growing property development, housing, rehousing, gentrification and urban renewal. Building industry involves so many materials for exterior and interior décor and furnishings. Ceramic is an essential component of interior ornamentation to give a structure, be it a modern house, hotel, motel, cottage or a corporate office, both elegant look and taste.
Ceramic-sanitary trade reached a frantic sales pitch before 2020, but Covid-19 stunted its growth. However, the economy has started to roll, so has the ceramic sector. With other sector players, RAK Ceramics Bangladesh has cut out a niche in the trade to cater to its sophisticated clientele.
RAK Ceramics Bangladesh, which deals in ceramics, tiles and sanitary fittings, is a proactive and resilient organisation working in close collaboration with all its stakeholders in a focused, constructive and mutually beneficial manner. Well-positioned in the market and having an edge over its rivals, RAK Ceramics benefits from some of the structural long-term growth drivers that include urbanisation, housing under-penetration, accessibility to financing solutions and a growing aspirational middle class. A wide range of branded products of the company are made available to all potential and emerging markets of the country through a unified customer sales team and integrated supply chain network that leverages the company’s scale. However, RAK Ceramics targets highest profitability, underpinned by a cost-conscious culture as well as environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles, to drive its shared value creation.
RAK Ceramics Bangladesh has a primary listing on the premier bourse Dhaka Stock Exchange. The company was incorporated in 1998 as its operations date back to the year 2000. The structure of the business in its current state is representative of a UAE-Bangladesh joint-venture project. The biggest factor that ensures the strongest differentiation for RAK Ceramics is its wide product portfolio comprising ceramics and grès porcellanato (porcelain/fully vitrified) tiles, bathroom sets and all types of sanitary ware. RAK Ceramics is currently marketing different sorts of sanitary items like water closets, wash basins, faucets, urinals and partition, accessories, furniture, flushing systems and kitchen sinks. As part of a serial initiative to highlight the sector insiders, ‘Ceramic Bangladesh’ depicts the sanitary ware production of RAK Ceramics Bangladesh in its current issue. To have the f irst-hand experience, this f lagship eponymous magazine attempted to make a spot visit to the factory located at Dhanua locality under Sreepur upazila in Gazipur, a central district of Bangladesh and some 60 kilometres away from the capital city of Dhaka. Recently, Sadhan Kumar Dey, Chief Operating Officer (COO) and also Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of RAK Ceramics Bangladesh, talked to the ‘Ceramic Bangladesh’ publication and shared his insights on the sanitary ware production of his company, marketing, sales, profit and growth in addition to highlighting the challenges and commercial prospects of the entire sector.
RAK Ceramics has been improving from day one of its launch in the production line. RAK has left its mark everywhere from sophisticated design to market requirement and preparation of quality products as much as possible. According to Mr Sadhan, his company launches various technological products each year to attract more customers and make the market competitive enough.
Gas crisis hits production The fast-growing ceramic and sanitary ware sector reels from the gas crisis. RAK Ceramics is not beyond it. Mr Sadhan says his company normally produces 4,500-4,800 sanitary units per day. But things have changed in recent times. RAK Ceramics is now producing 80 per cent of its total capacity due to the ongoing gas crisis that has hit the production line across industries. It is now producing between 3,800 and 4,000 pieces of sanitary ware based on the low-pressure gas supply issue. The promising industry once made a sustainable and strong footing in the local market on the back of gas availability, cheap labour and tariff advantage. But it is now struggling to continue its rising trend.
Almost all manufactured goods like ceramic raw materials, clothes, medicines and processed food products are shipped in containers. After Covid-19 was out of the way, the Russia-Ukraine war started in February 2022. Now, the two biggest setbacks hurting the country’s economy are dollar crisis and its rising exchange rate. As a result, two major things that have impacted the market abundantly are profitability and smooth supply of products.
Export of RAK products RAK Ceramics Bangladesh primarily aims to cater to the needs of the home consumers. It does not export items, including sanitary ware, so expensively. But on some special occasions, on behalf of its corporate companies, it exports for a very limited amount. Another reason why RAK Ceramics does not export highly is the involvement of higher costs and poor market competitiveness. Through local market creation, the company is developing itself. If the company was not able to create such a market locally, the country would be forced to import a huge volume of such products from abroad.
What about other market actors RAK Ceramics Bangladesh is the competitor of its own. It likes being its own rival. RAK underlines the importance of its long-cherished company principle to do business through serving people’s demand and interests. Even the company is making and reaching out sanitary items for low-income people with no sacrifice of standard quality. As the market leader, RAK Ceramics is developing and focusing itself.
Use of state-of-the-art technology RAK Ceramics Bangladesh blazes a in introducing hi-tech innovations in its production line that are a breakthrough in the allied industry here. A wide range of top-notch technologies are used at the company’s state-of-the-art plants, including digital printing technology, big slabs, slim, anti-microbial, glow in the dark, double charge, roll feed and cutting-edge technologies like granitech, technoslate, twin press, dry glaze and water jet among others.
RAK ETP running round the clock RAK ETP running round the clock RAK Ceramics cares for the environment. Its effluent treatment plant (ETP) runs now for 24 hours. The company is using the plant from the perspective of its moral, social and humanitarian responsibility. Now, it is utilising 60-70 per cent of recycled water from the ETP. It plans to increase the usage of such water to 100 per cent in near future. RAK Ceramics is planning to install a new plant in the coming days to make the best use of recycled water and curb environmental pollution.
RAK Ceramics goes green Sustainability in every layer of business is one of the main components of the mission and vision of RAK Ceramics. The company is committed to practising environmental stewardship throughout its manufacturing chain, from product design and efficient operations processes, and also to playing an active role in building a better community by boosting the surrounding environment. Organisational activities improve energy efficiency, reduce pollution, enhance biodiversity and improve the quality of life for both people in the communities it operates in and its workforce. RAK’s sanitary ware division is committed to developing eco-friendly products with a particular focus on water saving. It has saved 33 per cent in water consumption using the latest flush systems in water closets. The company recycles natural raw materials to help conserve natural resources and adopts clean development mechanism (CDM) projects to reduce carbon emissions during the manufacturing process.
RAK an award-winning brand To its credit, RAK Ceramics Bangladesh has bagged multiple awards and prizes in recognition of its quality products and services, including the International Business Stevie® Awards in 2015, winning a silver award for ‘most innovative company’ and a bronze award for ‘health, safety and environment programme of the year’. RAK Ceramics has also been awarded ‘Brand of the Year’ at the prestigious World Branding Awards 2015.
Quality and certifications RAK Ceramics Bangladesh uses the world-class SACMI technology across its operations to ensure excellent products and lessen minimal wastage while incorporating costs that are comparably the lowest in the industry. The business house emerged as the first company in Bangladesh in the ceramics industry to scoop the prestigious ISO 9001: 2008 certification by the UK’s accredited internationally-recognised certification agency, BVQI, in May 2006. It has taken the ecological responsibility seriously, making a commitment to protecting and preserving the environment. This has been testified in its ISO 14001: 2004 certification. RAK’s sanitary ware complies with the quality criteria detailed under BDS 1162: 2012. Both tiles and sanitary ware products are BSTI-approved as well.
“To mitigate other challenges,” RAK Ceramics Bangladesh COO Sadhan says, “our consistent and persistent efforts are exerted to add value to the products and bring new designs to them. The country has been able to develop quality manpower through its education and various training programmes. In the past, Bangladesh had to hire a large number of foreign skilled employees, but now it is employing a handful of high-ranking technical hands from abroad for the industry.”
A good number of highly skilled trainers from the UAE office are visiting his Bangladesh office to provide their expertise every now and then, Mr Sadhan pointed out. that RAK Ceramics is now recognised as the market leader as it does not compromise with the quality of products, its manpower are highly-skilled, it trains employees by high-level technical experts from abroad with intent to build expertise locally to meet local demands, according to him.
More than 90 per cent Bangladeshi consumers love their RAK-branded products, including sanitary ware, as RAK Ceramics has been able to establish its prominence and popularity in the local market in more than two decades, according to Mr Sadhan.
“Our company never ever compromises with products as it always believes in the motto of producing quality items. Any poor quality products and rejected sanitary ware items are made powdered and those are being used in different development projects, especially in road construction. On top of that, my company is reusing them for their own purpose where it is necessary,” he told the magazine.
Mr Sadhan’s brand-name company makes some sanitary items, which are not for profit. RAK sends those products to the remote areas of the country for mass-level sanitation. Such ventures often lead the company to incur losses to make it reachable for the people who do not have affordability at all, according to him.
“Now, we are expanding more and planning to capture more and more market share. Our company plans to produce 5,000 pieces or units of sanitary ware per day very soon,” concluded Mr Sadhan
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