Wood king steps out into the world of manufacturing
By Maqbool Ahmed Siraj
The Malur village near Bangalore would soon have a large scale plant for manufacture of wooden particleboard. The state-of the art plant is being set up by entrepreneur Farooq Ali Khan who is mobilizing an investment of Rs. 1,000 crore to produce a quality product. The MoU signed with the Government of Karnataka came as a stunning piece of news from the recently concluded Global Investment Meet (GIM). The plant of the Associate Décor Limited (ADL) in Malur, 35 kms east of Bangalore, will produce 3.5 lakh cubic metre of particleboard annually. The particleboard is widely used for interiors, furniture and for partitioning purposes. The market for the same has been rising at the rate of 20% annually. It will employ nearly 750 persons while providing indirect employment for hundreds of others. Business and innovation had been in Farooq’s blood from the beginning. Even while being a student in 1989, he had developed a ceramic tube to pour molten metal for the Wheel and Axle Plant at Yelahanka in the outskirts of Bangalore. The unit manufacturing the tube was later sold off. Later he got into the trading of wood and emerged as the principal suppliers of wood for the paper factory at Dandeli and BILT in Maharashtra. He established reputation not only with leading industries but also with hundreds of small farmers in Karnataka to whom he supplied nearly a crore of free eucalyptus seedlings every year. Now his plant at Malur itself would require more than 1,200 tons of wood a day where wood chip constitute the raw material. Having risen from a humble origin from a family in Agaram village in Kolar district, Farooq Ali Khan had had his early education at Yeldur village to later study at Bangalore’s Al-Ameen College which he now patronizes. He topped the educational career with a BE from Singhania University in Udaipur. The fully automated plant is being set up with hi-tech machines worth Rs. 300 crorefrom Germany and Italy. The particleboard unit being set up by him will be the largest of its kind in South Asia. raw material feeding system could even take wood logs of any size which will be turned into chips which will then be pressed together with industrial glues and resins into boards with internal bonding and surface strength of the highest standard. In an interview with Islamic Voice, Farooq said the facility brings the finest brands in the manufacturing business from across the world like Dieffenbacher, Siempelkamp, Pallman, and Minimax from Germany and Steinmann from Switzerland and PAL, IMAL and Trasmec from Italy. Khan also plans to follow up with a unit to manufacture mica sheet (as topping material for furniture) and still later a furniture park in the vicinity of the plant in Malur to produce knock down furniture that can be assembled and dismantled as per needs. He will be signing an MoU with Nolte of Germany in this connection shortly. Khan’s plant has come up on 75 acres of land allotted by the Government of Karnataka under KIADB area. The Government of Karnataka will be providing him soft loan of Rs. 200 crore as incentive over VAT. Being a dry industry it suits the parched district of Kolar and is likely to be a boon for the small farmers engaged in growing trees for timber purpose. Farooq can be reached at: farooq. [email protected]
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