Though Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a voluntary initiative by a corporate entity, to Epyllion, CSR is a sine qua non to take the responsibility of the society. “… I tell you there is no loss in CSR, if you do CSR, it will bring welfare to people, society and environment, which eventually becomes a sustainable business epitome,” said Reaz Uddin Al-Mamoon, managing director of export-oriented garment company Epyllion Group in an interview with The Financial Express. Epyllion, along with another business entity, received the sixth Standard Chartered-Financial Express Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award-2016 for their outstanding contributions to communities beyond their corporate practices. “‘charity’ has a variety of ranges from sponsoring sports for underprivileged, donating disaster fund, setting up educational institutions, health care centers, running tree plantation programmes and scholarship programmes etc,” Mr Reaz Uddin Al-Mamoon said. The USD $200 million yearly turnover export-oriented group spent Tk 16 million on CSR activities in 2015, which were Tk 14.9 million in 2014 and Tk 14.7 million in 2013. Based on group’s CSR expense scenario of last three fiscal years, the company forecasts their CSR expense in 2016 would be around Tk 18.3 million. It may vary depending on management decision for new projects and proposals from stakeholders and external parties. “But, I tell you this is not enough, we need to do more,” Mr Mamoon told FE. He said: “We have some other CSR programmes to be implemented in the future, but they are still under discussion. If we take those projects, the CSR expenditure will be much higher in 2016-17.” Epyllion Group started its journey as a readymade garment (RMG) house manufacturing and exporting knitwear since 1994 and has been considered today as one of the biggest conglomerates with establishment of its backward linkage of all kinds-knit garments, textile, wet processing and garments accessories. The Group experienced 25 per cent export growth in the fiscal year 2014-2015 while the capacity growth intensified to 8.0 per cent during the same period. Major buyers of its products are C&A, M&S, G-Star, H&M, Celio, Original Marine, Next and s.Oliver etc. As Rana Plaza collapse anniversary is approaching near, later in the month, he said Rana Plaza collapse has changed the country’s RMG sector a lot. “We had been experiencing an uneven competition with non-compliance factories before the collapse. Now buyers are looking for compliant manufacturing and we are seeing increasing growth,” he said. He thinks the after Rana Plaza collapse industry is more disciplined, more compliant, more responsible to society, community, buyers, workers, and to the country. Reaz Uddin Al-Mamoon had started his career as a bank official. With his 25 years experience in the industry, the group now runs more than a dozen subsidiaries. His latest venture is Sailor, a local brand of high-end clothes and accessories for men and women. Sailor opened the first outlet in Dhaka in April last year. Now, it runs five stores. Mr Mamoon said he embarked on the retail business, as there is a big ready market in Bangladesh created by the growing demand of the rising middle class. About Bangladesh’s target to export $50 billion worth of garment items by 2021, the entrepreneur said it is achievable if gas and power supplies to industrial units are ensured. He also suggested improvement of infrastructure to help reach the export target. Apart from the traditional EU, US and Canadian markets, Bangladesh will perform well in some new export destinations like Japan, China, Brazil, India, Chile and South Africa, he said. Mr Mamoon said the second generation in the industry is much smarter than first generation. They are not involved with only cutting and sewing of clothes. Many of them have already brought qualitative varieties of changes in the industry. “They are educated from world-famous universities. They know fashion industry, taste of clothing habit of people. So they can make the changes,” he said. Indicating new markets opening, he said China itself has become a good market for Bangladeshi RMG even though the country is the largest apparel exporter worldwide. “We must increase our production capacity as work orders are shifting from China to Bangladesh and new destinations with new opportunities are emerging,” he said. Bangladesh should grab the market opportunities promptly, otherwise other emerging countries will occupy the place, he added.
