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Thursday, March 28, 2024

An Interview with Mansoor Haider Jawaid

An Interview with
Mansoor Haider Jawaid
Managing Director of Rudolf Pakistan (Private) Limited

TEXtalks: Since how long has Rudolf’s been operating globally and in Pakistani market?
Mansoor Haider Jawaid:
Rudolf has a 94 years’ history, having been set up by an engineer Mr. Reinhold Rudolf in 1922 in Germany. In Pakistan, Rudolf has been present since the mid-eighties through agency agreements. The subsidiary, Rudolf Pakistan was incorporated in 2005 with the intention to transfer manufacturing techniques and technologies to Pakistan. Our first manufacturing plant was commissioned in 2005 and I am proud to state that in 2016, we will be moving to a new and modern facility in Sunder Industrial Estate.

TEXtalks: What is Rudolf vision and how would you describe the motto: „Think global, act local !“?
Mansoor Haider Jawaid: The vision of Rudolf is described in one sentence that is formulated as a vision as well, “Rudolf makes friends”. Rudolf wants to be trusted and known as the best friend of textile manufacturers around the world. We provide solutions to our customers, not just products. Our research and knowledge is focused on building better, more sustainable products as well as technologies that can enable textile technicians to produce higher quality, sustainable and environmentally friendly end products. When we say, think globally, act locally!,  we look at our global spread: Rudolf has about 50 locations that have 20 subsidiaries and 30 agency agreements. So our basic eco system is designed to combine and reflect the knowledge that we gather from different countries, from different cultures and working with different kind of productions, techniques and products. It allows us to convey our knowledge and our skills to different products as well as techniques to these customers that we have in very specific conditions that are in different countries. I would take for example the products designed for Pakistan; in this case the research is typically done in Germany but they have to be tested in Pakistan because of the environment and the climate. Then, we have to design a supply chain system as I said because of the weather that is enabling this thing. So in one sentence, it is culturally combining different knowledge sets into one product and then enabling it to be delivered in different environments locally.

TEXtalks: What are the key products of Rudolf for Pakistani market?
Mansoor Haider Jawaid: Rudolf internationally has a large number of products but in Pakistan, we are focused on textile processing which is dyeing and finishing, so we have a range of products for dyeing and pretreatment, as well as special effect chemicals that enhance the hand feel or provide certain effects on different textiles. As part of investment into the value chain in Pakistan, we also bringing dyestuff solutions; we represent the dyestuff company Colourtex, one of the largest manufacturers of dyestuff in the world. We also working with international manufactures of sizing chemicals to be able to provide these to different weaving companies to enhance our presence in the value chain.

TEXtalks: How would you describe the development of Rudolf’s competitive position in the market over the last five years/after establishing Rudolf Pakistan?
Mansoor Haider Jawaid: I would say that Rudolf has developed very nicely in the last five years or since the ten years we have been manufacturing in Pakistan. We have enhanced our market share, grown in financial numbers as well as in tonnage. Our competitive position versus we our honorable competitors has improved because we have been fast to react to the changing our customer’s demands. We have started manufacturing locally a number of products; we are not unique in that but our possibilities are unique because we try to tailor our products to suit the specific requirements of our customers. Our philosophy is to be friend with our customers. We try to build strong customers relationships based on trust. We believe that if they have a problem; they will be able to trust Rudolf to come up with solutions. In a sense, this is built on the belief that Rudolf Pakistan is not just a company, it is a living organism; it interacts with customers, and it brings their requirements and provide solutions in the form of knowledge of a product and process. We try to focus on a product not just as a drum of a liquid or a solid, we think it is chemistry or a technology that can enhance the value in the customers’ product. We ensure testing, our compliance procedures are very regular based and very strict on European and German standards and we invest a lot of time, efforts and money into research and developments for the products. Most importantly, and it is something that I believe in and was possibly neglected in Pakistan, we focus vigorously on our supply chain. Most of the products in Pakistan have to depend on imported raw material, so ensuring that the product is available for the customer, it is delivered to their door step efficiently, delivering in organized and timely fashioned is one of the most important tasks that we have. Finally the manufacturing excellence, I believe, is the key to growth of any company in Pakistan, particularly so for Rudolf.

TEXtalks: With growing awareness in consumers, sustainability is vital for businesses to grow in the long run. How Rudolf does addresses the sustainability aspect of the business?
Mansoor Haider Jawaid: Sustainability is the key word for chemical industry for the last many years. There are two challenges, one is reactive approach which is basically to look at industry’s standards, where the industry is evolving, to ensures that you are in compliances of those. For example, if you go with ISO system, and you ensure certain processes are in place to monitor and evaluate the product as well your systems. At the same time, Rudolf has a very strong R&D focus, we believe that we are much more active in our approach towards our customers and our processes which allows us to minimize the impact of human chemistry on nature, as well as our products that are manufactured to these processes. So Rudolf has always focus on that as we consider Rudolf provides products that are very close to the customers, we say we are next to your skin, so we have to be environmentally aware. We try to reduce our impact in every possible way through our own research as well as by strictly ensuring the laws, regulations and industry standards.

TEXtalks: How do you see Pakistani market for Rudolf Products?
Mansoor Haider Jawaid: Pakistani market for Rudolf is a very large market. It’s the textile market, it’s one of the main back bone of the country’s industrial growth, our GDP as well and it will remain so because we have the raw material for that. Unfortunately, what Rudolf has not been able to find in Pakistan, is a value chain for chemistry, meaning raw material availability. Fortunately, people are now aware of that and there is rapid investment in this field which would allow Rudolf to grow in chemistry, not just by selling imported products but actual technology transfer into the country to be able to produce much more value added products, at the end, also to save the foreign exchange for the country. So, our products have a bright future in this country, we are here to stay. As I said we have already invested in new plant and we will continuity to invest in the human resource of this country to train technicians, to produce and manufacture products as well as to work with different customers to be able to produce more technology oriented products in the country.

TEXtalks: What particular steps industry should take to be more sustainable innovative and productive?
Mansoor Haider Jawaid: For the chemicals industry, if we broadly categories ourselves in that, the first thing for the industry is to ensure that the footsteps that are left on the national environment, has to be reduced and for that massive investments into infrastructure has to take place. Also, human resource training, as well as research & development has to be focused on and most important, there has to be a communication strategy so the use of the product has to be explained as well in the best possible way. It’s not just the industry but as well the users, the end consumers of the products that have to be educated to ensure that certain compliances are met. The industry has to come together on one common platform. In Pakistan, for example, we are trying to do that by being part of many industry initiatives. We work with the government to ensure that our industry is following all laws on environmental regulations. We are also trying to produce such products that are not energy intensive, that require less energy in consumption as well as production, so on the overall, I believes the industry has to lead the government by producing such products which are not just following regulation that are enabling Pakistan but in fact international standard products.

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