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A century-old business of handmade metal moulds continues to survive in Begum Bazar, one of the oldest commercial areas of Dhaka city even in this age of highly mechanised industries increasingly embracing digital technology.

Several families in Old Dhaka have been carrying forward the legacy for three generations now amid declining profits and increasing competition.

Basir Ahmed, 75, said that his family had been in this trade for nearly a century.

‘My father, late Abdul Barek, learned the mould-making when he was 17 years old in in Kolkata under the British rule,’ he said.

‘After returning, he started the first factory of this kind in Begum Bazar, and that’s how our family business began,’ he continued.

Basir’s family-owned business from the very start has been making moulds for bakery items, including cake, biscuit and bread trays, buns, donut cutters and barbecue stoves.

‘It’s the same technique we have been following, no major change,’ said Basir.

Apart from moulds, their factory used to produce oil lamps, measuring funnels and some other items that are not produced anymore mainly because their use has died out.

His parents had six children of whom four brothers, Basir among them, had joined the trade.

After his two elder brothers passed away, he along with his younger brother and their nephews now run two factories, carrying on what he proudly calls ‘the heritage of Old Dhaka.’

After his father established the first mould factory, another one was established in the area and for long the two met the demand of moulds across the country, as the number of bakeries was limited.

‘Now about 19 factories produce similar moulds,’ said Basir, who, along with his partners, has to navigate through an increasingly competitive market. 

They, however, has a market of their products in a number places, including Jamalpur, Mymensingh, Bhairab in Kishoreganj, Zajira in Shariatpur, Tongi and other areas of Gazipur .

The factory of the Basir family went to as far as Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands at one time.

That was about 25 years ago.

Basir said that with the handicraft giant Aarong’s connection, they had secured some buyers from those two countries who ordered them shoe boxes, fruit trays, and four types of jewellery boxes.

But those orders stopped coming after a short time.

For making moulds, these factories mainly use tin, aluminium and steel sheets as raw materials.

Depending on orders, Basir’s factory needs 70–130 kilograms of raw materials daily.

Although at one time they supplied moulds to Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation, Aarong, and bakeries like Olympia, Yusuf, Ananda, City and Sohag, currently their customers are mainly the bakers in New Super Market and New Market City Complex.

Md Rustam, 63, another mould maker who is in the trade for nearly five decades, paid tributes to Basir Ahmed who taught him the skills.

‘I was like an abandoned stone,’ Rustom, orphaned in his childhood, said in an emotional tone, ‘he turned me into gold with his affection and guidance.’

Rustam’s factory supplies products to Chattogram, Sylhet and Brahmanbaria.

‘Profits are falling,’ he said, echoing Basir.

‘Once a Tk 20,000 sale brought Tk 13,000 profit, but now they earn barely Tk 1,000,’ he said.

Winter is the busiest season at the mould factory, as demand for bread and cake moulds doubles at the time.

‘With Tk 50,000 to Tk 60,000, anyone can start the business, but profits are no longer the same,’ he said.

Md Azam Hossain, 61, a mould maker for over 40 years, represents the third generation of his family in the trade since Pakistan era.

‘My grandfather made ice cream moulds, my father shifted to bakery moulds, and we are carrying on the legacy,’ he said.

Azam added that his family runs two factories with five workers. ‘We once supplied to Nabisco and Amber. Now we supply to Pran and distribute across all 64 districts,’ he said.

Md Shahid, 43, said his family’s business is one of the oldest in Begum Bazar, started by his grandfather and passed down through generations.

He and his brother now run two factories with four workers.

‘During my father’s time, we supplied to Orient, Haque, and Prince bakeries,’ he said, adding that now their products were going to different ‘live’ bakeries in the city.

Shahid who has now his son joining the trade as the fourth generation, said that their once export to Indonesia, Dubai, Qatar and China stopped later.

‘I hope he will continue our family legacy,’ Shahid said of his son.

Basir Ahmed, the son of the mould factory pioneer in Bangladesh, is keen that their tradition continues over time, a wish that has been echoed by the other elderly mould makers.