We lost PRAN-RFL Group founder Amjad Khan Chowdhury yesterday. It is an incurable loss for the Bangladesh business community. Mr. Chowdhury was one of the pioneers of the food processing industry in Bangladesh and a true entrepreneur. Bangladesh will have to wait for years to have an entrepreneur of his stature. We express our deep condolence.
Mr. Chowdhury was an extraordinary figure in business and his life is a treasure trove of lessons for a new generation of entrepreneurs. We took time to unearth a few true facts about Mr. Chowdhury to understand him and his work better. What keeps us alive is not what we own but it is what we leave behind that makes us immortal.
1-Amjad Chowdhury was born in Natore on Nov 10, 1937. He studied at Nabakumar Institution and later, earned his bachelor’s degree from the Australian Staff College.
2- He joined the Pakistan Army in 1965 and that’s how his career started.
3- He started his business career in 1981 at the age of 44, after retiring from the Bangladesh army
4- It took him more than a decade to make his business work. His first breakthrough came a decade later when he set up an agro-processing business in 1991.
5-He is considered a pioneer of the food processing industry in Bangladesh.
6-He started his food processing business in 1991; it took him five years to make his first export: in 1996 he made his first export and it happened to be to France.
7-His business career started with RFL. RFL stands for Rangpur Foundry Ltd. When it was founded it was about to make irrigation pumps.
8- He got the idea of Pran in 1985 and leased six acres of land in Narsingdi. That’s how all of it started.
9- Today Pran is a household name in Bangladesh and now exports products to 106 countries
10-Pran is the country's biggest food processor and it reaches about 300 million customers
11-Pran employs about 60,000 people directly and about 100,000 farmers countrywide.
12-Amjad Khan was the founder-president of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh [REHAB]
13-He was also the founder-president of the Bangladesh Agro-Processors’ Association
14-The Daily Star and DHL honored him as the Business Person of the Year in 2o11
