Making millions from mattresses and more

Jaker Jahan Shuvro at this Uttara office
Prothom Alo

Jaker Jahan Shuvro, a young man from Habiganj, settled in Dhaka after graduating from North South University.

He wasn’t an extraordinary student, but he understood the principles of business well. His knowledge base and prowess in business predictions helped him explore business beyond the borders.

He started his career with a Tk 13,000 salary job. Now his venture earns around Tk 15 million monthly.

After his graduation, Jaker joined a home textile exporting enterprise as junior staff member. The enterprise was then exporting home textiles with foreign brand names.

Jaker calculated that the export of products with an original brand name would be more profitable.

To start his own brand ‘Livingtex’, he first left his job. He was then merely 24 years old.

“My father was not very rich, but he stood by me with mental and financial support,” Jaker reminisces.

He then started to collect best quality fabric from several local factories and manufactured different home textiles like bed sheets, towels, cushion covers, quilts and mattress. He printed the ‘Livingtex’ from his printer at home. The products were packed and labelled and sold at the super-shops.

In 2012-13, Jaker was pleased with the super shop facilities as he could sell the Livingtex products at kiosks there. The young entrepreneur was receiving positive response.

He didn’t rest his laurels so soon! He was planning for an online business as he foresaw the huge potentiality of such an advanced level of commerce. It was the year 2015 when e-commerce started to bloom.

“I didn’t have enough capital to open an outlet so I chose to go online,” he says. He explored the global export market through online business.

Currently, Livingtex products can be bought online from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico, United Arab Emirates, India, and Nepal. Shoppers can collect the products, just paying local shipment costs as there are dealers of Livingtex in those countries.

Livingtex products are available in online marketplaces like Amazon, e-bay, daraz (Nepal) and others in Bangladesh.

Livingtex is trying to expand its market in Sri Lanka, Maldives and Pakistan.

“I hope that by this year-end, the number of daily order for Livingtex products would reach five thousand,” Jaker says.

*This report appeared in the print and online edition of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten for the English edition by Sadiqur Rahman