How Khaza Confectionery became a household name in Bogura
After losing his job, Abdus Sobhan started a small bakery business in his house at Goalgari in Bogura town some 28 years ago
Losing a job is never a good thing for a breadwinner but it turned out to be the best thing that had happened to Abdus Sobhan Khaza, the creator of Bogura's Khaza Confectionery – a brand popular for baked food products.
A long time ago, Abdus Sobhan used to work as a baker at Bogura's old and famous bakery brand Akbaria. After losing his job at the age of 42, he fell into a quandary with no source of income to support his family and the education of his two sons.
Standing at the lowest point of his life, Sobhan did not lose hope. He started a small bakery business in his own single-storey house at Goalgari in Bogura town.
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That's how Khaza Confectionery set out on its journey. It has been 28 years since then. It was not a smooth ride by any means but with the help of his sons, Sobhan, who is now 70, managed to overcome all odds and turn his life around in the most meaningful way possible. Khaza is now a renowned bakery brand name in Bogura.
When Sobhan started the factory in 1995, he did not have any capital. His wife, GolapBanu, supported him by selling a small portion of the land she got from her father. Production began with 15 workers. Initially, cakes were produced in one oven and a small number of other bakery items. These products were sold in front of the house.
But Sobhan was not a seasoned businessman. It was a nightmare for him to survive in the competitive market with such a small investment. He kept counting losses regularly. In 2000, the company was closed due to a loss of capital. GolapBanu came forward again with more capital by selling the rest of the land she got as a legacy.
At that time, Sobhan's younger son Bayezid Sheikh was studying at the Zoology Department of Dhaka University. Seeing his father's struggle, he left his studies and moved to Bogura. He learned how to bake, how to sell and how to run the bakery business.
Bayezid, now 45-year-old, said it was the most practical decision he made at the time. He is now the director of Khaza Confectionery. Aside from managing the business, Bayezid managed to achieve a degree from the National University.
Bayezid said, "My father worked as a tailor before joining the food manufacturing business. He had a sewing machine at home. When money was needed to buy an oven for cake production, the sewing machine was sold for Tk3,000 and an oven was bought from Pizza Inn, a US restaurant chain, in 2001 for a total of Tk9,000."
In the second phase, Bayezid and his elder brother Khobayeb Sheikh and two workers started producing cakes at home again. Initially, they only produced birthday cakes and around 10-15 pounds of cakes were sold every day.
With time, the demand for Khaza Confectionery's cakes increased. Within a year, they opened the first outlet in the city's Satmatha area. At that time, Khobayeb and Bayezid both got job offers from a non-government organisation in Bogura.
They figured that with that job they would draw a combined salary of Tk20,000 a month but they were already making Tk15,000-16,000 a month by selling cakes. So, they decided to stick with the business and became entrepreneurs.
In 2004, they started producing bakery products (biscuits, bread) on a small scale. As business flourished, they bought another oven in 2005 to ramp up production. Using rickshaw vans, the two brothers used to sell cakes, biscuits and bread to local shops.
Bayezid said, "When the business was booming, Khobayeb started working as a contractor in the local government department. I was looking after the business by myself. By 2006, the business grew further with new deck ovens and mixer machines imported from China."
"In 2007, the number of workers in our factory increased to 25. It was the time when our small bakery started turning into a big one and we did not have to look back again," he said.
Currently, Khaza Confectionery has separate factories for bread, biscuits and cakes in the Sultanganj area of Bogura city. In 2017, another factory was established in the Nungola area for manufacturing vermicelli (semai), sweet, curd, chanchur and matha (liquid yoghurt).
Bayezid said, "A few years ago, a piece of land worth crores of taka, was bought in the Satmatha area in Bogura. A four-storey building was constructed there with an outlet on the ground floor."
A total of 11 food outlets of Khaza Confectionery have been established in Bogura city alone over a long period of time. There are four other outlets in four upazilas and two outlets in Gaibandha town, he said.
Bayezid and his brother also bought land separately for his mother. More importantly, their company runs on its own income without any bank loans. Their products are now going to almost all parts of the country.
Some 250 people have been given employment opportunities in this company which was built from scratch, he said.
Possibilities and problems
There is a huge demand for food products in the country. Food producers won't have to look back if they produce quality products. That is why more trained and skilled workers should come forward in this sector, said Bayezid.
"Those who are less interested in academic education should focus on technical or work-oriented education. People should work on the things they are really interested in. That way the unemployment problem of our country will be solved," he said.
There is no major crisis in food production but manufacturers have to face hassles and obstacles while getting approvals from the local administration, Bayezid said, adding that officials from various departments visit our establishments at different times and put pressure on us.
"Our country is not yet like the western countries. We lack transparency. We need to get rid of the tendency to harm the entrepreneurs by putting unnecessary pressure on them by the local government authorities," he added.
