ACI limited corporate information

Corporate Information

ACI values are embodied in its vision and mission statements. ACI quality and environmental concerns are clearly stated through declared policies.

What was primarily a Pharmaceutical business in 1992 with a turnover of Tk.80 million with stagnant growth, the new management brought about fundamental changes in policies and has in year 2005 grown to over Tk. 3413.05 million in turnover through diversified business interest including personal care products, food products, animal health, agrochemicals and seeds in addition to gaining a strong position in Pharmaceuticals.

ACI represents principals like AstraZeneca, UCB, Searle and Fujisawa in Pharmaceuticals business; Colgate-Palmolive, Heinz & Dabur in Consumer Products sector; Synzenta in Agrochemicals; Ranbaxy, Dabur, Wockhardt, Sanofi and Invesa in Animal Health sector.

The trading subsidiary of ACI represents in Bangladesh principals like ICI, Exxon-Mobile, Bayer, Stahl.

Agri Business:

Crop Care Public Health

Animal Health

Seeds.

• ACI Formulations Ltd.
• ACI Trading Ltd.
• ACI Salt Limited
• Apex Leather Craft Limited

• Endeavor to attain a position of leadership in each category of its businesses.
• Attain a high level of productivity in all its operations through effective and efficient use of resources, adoption of appropriate technology and alignment with our core competencies.
• Develop its employees by encouraging empowerment and rewarding innovation.
• Promote an environment for learning and personal growth of its employees.
• Provide products and services of high and consistent quality, ensuring value for money to its customers.
• Encourage and assist in the qualitative improvement of the services of its suppliers and distributors.
• Establish harmonious relationship with the community and promote greater environmental responsibility within its sphere of influence.

• Quality
• Customer Focus
• Fairness
• Transparency
• Continuous Improvement

ACI Consumer Brands is a leading Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company in Bangladesh. In the liquid antiseptic and mosquito repellant categories, this division is a very strong market leader. Foreign partners represented in by this division include Godrej Consumer Products (for hair care and skin care products), Parle Group (for Parle G biscuits), Beiersdorf, Germany (for Nivea range of products) and Colgate Palmolive.

ACI has formed joint ventures with leading FMCG and agribusiness players in the region. These are:

• Asian Consumer Care Private Limited: Joint venture of ACI and Redrock Limited, for distribution of various ranges of Dabur products in Bangladesh. ACI holds 50% stake in the venture.
• Tetley ACI Bangladesh Limited: Joint venture of ACI and Tetley Group of United Kingdom for distribution of Tetley products in Bangladesh, with ACI having 50% shareholding.

Many ACI products have crossed our national boundary and are being successfully exported to various countries in Asia, the Middle East and the CIS region. The response of foreign consumers to our products has been encouraging.

Diversification into New Industries

ACI Limited is venturing into new areas of business, as part of its diversification initiatives. Two such businesses being set up are ACI Salt Limited. and ACI Godrej Agrovet Private Limited.

• ACI Salt Limited: ACI has set up its salt refining plant in Rupganj, on the banks of the Shitalakhya River. The plant will produce refined iodized salt through Thermal Evaporation System. ACI has used technology from China Heavy Machineries Corporation (CHMC) in establishing the plant. The end product will be of high quality, free-flowing salt with even, crystallized grains. The iodine content of ACI salt will have a stability of more than 6 months. The project has been undertaken at an approximate cost of Taka 32 crores.

• ACI Godrej Agrovet Private Limited: Godrej is a pioneer in the packaged meat business in India. It is also the market leader in the poultry industry, and the owner of ‘Real Good’ brand. ACI and Godrej have a joint venture in Bangladesh to set up an Integrated Poultry Project. Under this project, ACI Godrej Agrovet has already set up a feed mill at Sirajganj. This is fully automatic pellet poultry and fisheries feed mill, which uses technology from Jiangsu Muyang group of China. The company has also set up a hatchery at Joynabazar, on the Dhaka Mymensingh road, with technology from Godrej. The plans for this project also include establishing Grand Parents and Parent Stock breeding farms. The investment in the project is Taka 8 crores, with ACI Limited having 50% shareholding of the company.

ACI Formulations Limited (ACI FL) is a subsidiary of ACI Limited, located at Gazipur, in the outskirt of Dhaka.

ACI FL manufactures majority of the products of ACI Strategic Business Limited except for the Pharmaceutical Division. The factory is equipped with the state -of -the -art facilities for product formulations and process innovation. These include modern computerized equipment like HPLC and GLC.

The product range manufactured at ACI FL include Crop Protection Chemicals like insecticides, herbicides and fungicides in granular, powder and liquid forms, Mosquito Pesticides in the forms of aerosols, vaporizers and coils; and household chemicals like toilet cleaners and hand wash

M Anis Ud Dowla

M. Dowla was the President of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce & Industry for three terms in 1975, 1976 & 1977 and the President of Bangladesh Employees Federation for four terms in 1976, 1977, 1994 and 1995.

Board of Directors

Auditors

Rahman Rahman Huq

(a member firm of KPMG International)

Legal Advisor

Barrister Rafique-ul Huq,  Huq and Company

Financial Counselor

Mr. Sikander Ali

Principal Bankers

Standard Chartered Bank
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited
Commercial Bank of Ceylon Limited

Citibank N. A

The management of ACI commits itself to quality as the prime consideration in all its business decisions. All employees of ACI must follow documented procedures to ensure compliance with quality standards.

The pool of human resources of the company will be developed to their full potential and harnessed through regular training and their participation in seeking continuous improvement of work methods.

• Comply fully with all local and national environmental regulations.
• Conserve natural resources like water and energy for sustainable development, and adopt environmentally safe processes.
• Ensure appropriate treatment of all effluents prior to discharge, to prevent pollution or degradation of environment.
• Ensure appropriate communication and cooperate with internal and external interested parties on environmental issues.
• Create awareness on environmental issues among our employees and suppliers.
• Adopt modern waste management technology.

The compact calls on companies to embrace the ten universal principles in the key areas of human rights, labour standards and the environment. These ten principles are:

Human Rights

• To support and respect International Human Rights within the company’s sphere of influence.
• To make sure that their own corporations are not complicit with Human Rights Violation.

Labour

• To end discrimination in the workplace.
• Abolition of child labour.
• The right to collective bargaining and recognition of freedom of association.
• To eliminate the use of forced and compulsory labour.

Environment

• To support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges.
• To undertake initiative to promote greater environmental responsibility.
• To encourage the diffusion of environmentally friendly technology.

Anti-Corruption

• To work against all forms of corruption, including extortion and bribery.

ACI pledges to keep all its employees, customers, shareholders and suppliers regularly informed about the compact and the company’s initiatives to uphold the principles

A dedicated team of medical graduates makes up the Medical Services Department (MSD) in ACI, which carries out CME programs termed ‘Clinical Meetings’ all across Bangladesh. These are essentially non-advertised meets of medical professionals that serve as a training and knowledge-sharing forum, often conducted by experts on the subject. Our partners in development for these programs are doctors, medical associations and/or departments, and various study groups. The level of involvement of ACI in these programs may range from only sponsoring the entire program to providing all types of services and technical support to the presenter to even conducting the program by an MSD doctor. Support from MSD include research support for deliberations at the meet, literature and multimedia presentation for the program, updates on new technology and thoughts in medical fields, and even educational support to any participant in their area of interest.

The Bangladesh Today, a media unit of ACI, started a Children’s Club two years ago. The Children’s Club holds many cultural events and competitions all year round. The Children’s Carnival is a major annual event that draws a huge number of participants. ACI has also undertaken an English Education program in Faridpur, one of the remotest districts of Bangladesh. This provides support to teach English Language to school going children.

Outcome

Doctors in Bangladesh who are not living in the metropolitan cities have very limited access to the Internet or any other sources of information. In order to keep them updated on the developments in the medical practices regularly, the CME program has been proven highly effective. During 2004 alone, the number of such meetings held was 342, participated by approximately 18,000 (eighteen thousand) doctors. When compared to the 2003 figures of 100 meetings with 5000 participants, the impact of our efforts can be seen reflected in the tremendous rate of growth.

The Children’s Club now has over 1000 members who actively engage in pursuits of creative learning. They are grooming themselves to be well-rounded individuals with skills in foreign languages, arts, crafts and music. ACI believes that by promoting education of children, we are contributing to societal development by shaping the minds of our future leaders

• Field demonstrations on various methods of crop protection, that pose the least hazard for the environment
• Training on new technologies of cultivation, for higher yields and new crops
• Training to channel partners (e.g. retailers and agricultural extension workers) and third parties (e.g. NGO workers)

ACI also has similar education programs for animal and poultry farmers. These include

§   Technical trainings on diverse aspects of farming, and on application of new technologies

§    Farmers’ group meeting for sharing of learning and experiences

§    Free visits to farms by veterinarians, to identify problems and give advice to individual farmers

Outcomes

Our farmers are mostly illiterate persons, having learnt the art and science of farming by assisting their family on the fields. Our continuous endeavors to educate farmers have given significant benefits on three fronts:

v    Raising the level of awareness among farmers on improving their agricultural output through application of new technology, encouraging them to share experiences with neighboring farmers and, in the long run, developing educated farmers.

v    Raising the educational level and technical knowledge of channel partners and third parties who act as advisors to the farmers.

v    Most importantly, making practicing farmers aware of ways to protect the environment from hazardous uses of chemicals on their farms, allowing them the opportunity for informed decision-making.

ACI hopes to continue to play a leading role in promoting greater environmental responsibility among farmers in Bangladesh.