Atlas Bangladesh, a voice-owned engineering firm, is determined to enterprise into bike helmet manufacturing in collaboration with Runner Alternate Park, a misfortune of the Runner Crew, with an preliminary investment of Tk18 crore.
The two firms bear already signed a memorandum of realizing (MoU) just these days to connect the helmet manufacturing facility within Atlas Bangladesh’s manufacturing facility premises. The unit, named the Atlas-Runner Helmet Plant, will characteristic below a separate board with representatives from every parties.
The day prior to this, Atlas unveiled its enterprise thru the inventory exchanges, following which its portion mark surged by 9.94%, reaching Tk56.40 – the maximum allowable extend in a single day.
Atlas Bangladesh Restricted is a two-wheeler producer, and Runner Alternate Park, established in 2018, is an permitted distributor for Bajaj accurate plan and lubricants, specialising in every two-wheelers and three-wheelers.
Md Ajibor Rahman, managing director of Atlas Bangladesh told The Enterprise Approved, “The ask for helmets is increasing day-to-day, however the market tranquil relies largely on imports.”
Noting that the fresh market dimension of helmets is roughly Tk500 crore, he said, “The initiative to jointly role up the helmet manufacturing facility has been taken to meet the growing ask.”
This initiative marks the 2nd home enterprise into bike helmet manufacturing, per sources.
RFL Crew ventured into manufacturing bike helmets in mid-2023, the predominant such initiative within the nation. Under the emblem title Safemet, RFL within the foundation launched two kinds of helmets — half of-face and entire-face — with an investment of Tk20 crore.
The helmets are produced on the Durable Plastic Restricted manufacturing facility, a sister misfortune of RFL Crew, located in Palash, Narsingdi. The capacity has an annual manufacturing capacity of over 120,000 items.
Manufacturing Dreams
The Atlas-Runner Helmet Plant targets to commence its products by September or October subsequent year.
Ajibor Rahman said they’ve deliberate for an annual manufacturing of 6 lakh items in opposition to the 20 lakh annual ask for helmets in Bangladesh. He additionally mentioned scaling up manufacturing if market ask increases.
Atlas Bangladesh’s tumble and war
According to its web page material, Atlas Bangladesh began its trade in 1966 as a privately owned entity in collaboration with Honda Motor Company Restricted.
After Bangladesh’s independence in 1972, Atlas became as soon as nationalised and placed below the Bangladesh Steel and Engineering Corporation (BSEC).
In 1988, the firm became as soon as listed on the inventory exchanges and later in 1993, Atlas began its trade with Hero Honda.
Nonetheless, the separation of the Jap tag Honda and Indian Hero Honda in 2011 marked the foundation of Atlas’s decline. In 2018, the firm signed an organization partnership with TVS Auto Bangladesh and two years later, in January 2020, Atlas launched a original bike assembly line to assemble TVS bikes.
But Atlas has been incurring losses for years due to its lack of capacity to sell its products.
