Rise in migration, skilled workers abroad amid modify official channel can enhance remittances.

Byline: Khalil Ahmed

Interview with Mr Shamim A. Firpo - Chairman, Firpo Group of Companies

PAGE: Tell me something about yourself and your organization, please:

SHAMIM A. FIRPO: I started life's struggle at a very young age. When I was six-year-old my father died and after his death my mother played a vital role in building my personality and future. My mother motivated and encouraged me in every walk of life. I am determined and optimist kind of a person and always believe in Allah Subhanahu Ta'alah that He always has good for everyone. As a person, I am very simple and result-oriented. I am also very much interested in social welfare work. In my whole life I worked hard and made my life as I dreamed. I am a self-made person and feel pleasure whenever I share my success story with students and young entrepreneurs in mentoring sessions while visiting universities and educational institutes to motivate them.

As I shared that, at a very young age I started my business journey. That was 1968 when I established my food business with the name of Firpo Restaurant at Tariq Road in Karachi. With the blessings of Allah Subhanahu Ta'ala and my mother's prayers, my business got success and popularity. The name Firpo was so popular that it has become part of my name. I am proud to say that there may be thousands of Shamims but there is only one Firpo, so whenever the Firpo name is taken anywhere across Pakistan, people come to know that it is only Shamim A. Firpo. After getting success in food business, I diversified my business and started trading, import and export business with the name of Sohail Enterprises in 1975. I constantly worked with devotion, with the flow of time my sons joined me in business and Alhamdulillah our business has now converted into Firpo Group of Companies.

In 2018 we celebrated 50 Years Golden Jubilee of our business. If I talk about my business, we mainly deal in auto lamps and auto parts. We are well known amongst automobile industry in Pakistan. All the top auto manufacturing companies use our bulbs and parts in their vehicles. We are doing our business globally and have established offices in China, Sri Lanka, and Romania. Our working partners are China/Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, USA, Germany, Hungry, UAE, Romania, Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Iran, Afghanistan.

Firpo is our registered brand name which is known as a name of Trust and a symbol of Quality in market.

I am also holding different public and private portfolios and also have interest in business...