Success and failure stories

The land route closed, a 400-worker hosiery factory shut, and the owner went under

A bank-financed hosiery factory employing about 400 people closed after overland exports to India stopped. Across the district's roughly 3,000 units, about 65 percent of more than a lakh of workers are now out of work.

Two of 33 ice mills still running, and five winter months of straight loss

Chandpur once had 33 ice mills running; at the time of the report only two were. Ice goes wholesale at 160 taka a can, and demand disappears for five straight winter months.

A 1.5 lakh taka machine turning thrown-away plastic into 10-15 tonnes of flake a month

Started in 2006 with a 1.5 lakh taka scrapping machine, this unit now makes 10-15 tonnes of plastic flake a month, employs 20 people and earns its owner 1 to 1.5 lakh taka a month by his own account.

Capital

৳1.5 lakh

Started in 2006

Four taka on a pen, five on a notebook: 10,000 taka of sales leaves 3,000-4,000

Notebooks from March 2023, paper pens from November: sales of 9,000-10,000 taka a month now leave 3,000-4,000 after a 500-taka shop rent and other costs.

Started in 2023

A 7,500-taka batch returns 2,300, and a bag-making village falls from 550 families to 35

Sixty kg of paper yields 70 kg of bags: 7,500 taka in, 9,800 out, 2,300 taka of profit. With polythene back in the markets, Kagojipara has gone from more than 550 bag-making families to 30-35.

20 kg of paper bags between household chores, at least 300 taka a day

In Bakail village, Alfadanga, old paper is bought by the kilo and turned into bags at a piece rate of 10-20 taka a kg. One maker does up to 20 kg a day for at least 300 taka, with no capital and no premises.

From carpenter on someone else's bench to owner, with 25 lakh taka in the business

One of the roughly 300 furniture workshops across seven villages in Sherpur Sadar is run by a former carpenter whose investment in the business now stands at 25 lakh taka.

No gas connection, costs 30 percent higher, and a 21,000-kg-a-month factory closed

A factory averaging 21,000 kg of aluminium utensils a month closed around 2015. Denied a gas connection, its production costs ran more than 30 percent above gas-fired rivals.

Five hours a day without power, 3,000 taka of wages, and takings that fall short

This welding workshop in Maijdee opens for nine hours and has no electricity for about five of them. Three employees cost 3,000 taka a day in wages, and the day's work often does not reach 3,000 taka.

Fairs cancelled: 90,000 taka of toys spoiled, and another 60,000 left unsold

Three months of fairs from Chaitra to Jyaistha are this wooden-toy trade's entire market. One year 90,000 taka of toys spoiled in store; the next season's 60,000 taka of borrowed stock went unsold too.

Capital

৳60k

No chemicals, six days of Ramadan idle, and hand output down by half

A shortage of imported chemicals shut 10-12 shoe factories in Bhairab. Handmade output fell from 20-24 pairs a day to 10-12, and orders halved.

A 3 lakh bank loan, and 30 lakh taka of shoes a month

From a shop job paying 20 taka to a factory built on a 3 lakh taka bank loan: 40 workers, 300-350 pairs a day, 30 lakh taka of sales a month and 3 lakh taka of income.

Capital

৳3 lakh