Once the list of export products from Bangladesh was only clothes. Gradually, various products of various sectors including agriculture, fisheries, leather, handicrafts were added to the export list. In most cases, domestic entrepreneurs produce products against the orders of the world’s big brands.

Then the product is exported. Abdus Sattar started making trolley bag brand Ornet in 2018 with such insistence on how many ‘foreign brands’. The trolley bag is now being sold in the US market. Bangladeshi brand trolley bags are being sold in more than a thousand outlets in the country.

You must remember the lost Belly Keds. Abdus Sattar is one of the two founders of this Keds. He is now the master of step footwear. Their Great Luggage & Leather Goods manufacture travel bags and trolleys. Also exports against the orders of foreign brands. Besides, this trolley bag is also being sold in the local market.

Inquiring about the missing Belly Keds, it is known that the founders of Belly Keds are now producing step shoes. Besides, they are also making travel trolleys and home bags. The factory of the company is in Narsingdi. Abdus Sattar is the founder of Belly Keds, but now his son Shamim Kabir is handling the major part of the business.

The company has three factories in Narsingdi. These factories can be seen, trolley bags and backpacks, one of the travel accessories, are being made in two factories. Shoe making equipment in another factory. Production is running at full speed in all three factories. These factories are completely environment friendly. There is no issue of pollution.

Factory workers said that most of the materials used to make trolleys and backpacks are imported. However, about 30 percent value addition is added to the export of these products. Thanks to the Steppe factory, bags are now made in the houses of some nearby villages. Many workers who learned the job from the factory are now making their own bags and selling them in the local market. It meets the demand of school going village children’s bags.

Step Head Office in Belly Complex, Uttara. Talked there with the two leaders of the company, Abdus Sattar and Shamim Kabir. They said that their ancestors had a bag business since 1956-57. Later joined the shoe business. Then in 1999, they started the wholesale business of bags.

But due to high taxes, the production cost of bags was falling. At this time, the interest in traveling to the country began to increase. So father and son started making bags for the local market in 2014 by importing raw materials. After that, purchase orders started coming from different countries of the world. Now the export market is bigger than the local market.

The company has exported products worth USD 1.3 million in the financial year 2019-20. The export amount in 2020-21 financial year was 29 lakh dollars. And in the fiscal year 2021-22, it exported trolleys, bags and backpacks worth three million dollars. The company’s major customers now include Pierre Cardin, Wild Craft, Klein Tools, American Gear and Packlight.

Apart from Europe, America and India are the biggest markets of the group now. India and America have imposed additional taxes on imports of Chinese goods. And the Bangladeshi company is taking that opportunity.