Karachi - Unilever Pakistan and Tufail Chemicals have launched Pakistan’s largest production plant for key raw materials used in the production of shampoo. This plant makes Pakistan self-sufficient for this raw material, reducing the country’s dependency on imports and opens avenues for global exports. This plant was installed with a total investment of Rs1 billion by Tufail Chemicals and will produce a key shampoo raw material reducing Unilever Pakistan’s annual import bill by Euro 20 million. This joint initiative is part of a larger localisation agenda started by Unilever Pakistan which aims to procure over 70 percent of the company’s total raw material from within Pakistan as a means of reducing the country’s imports. Mr Abdul Razak Dawood, Adviser to PM on Commerce and Investment stated: “It is heartening to note that our companies are now coming forward and helping in reducing the reliance on imports. We need to start local manufacturing to create more jobs and support the local businesses. Made-in-Pakistan should be our utmost priority, which is Ministry of Commerce’s initiative for import substitution. This is playing an important role in revival of local manufacturing and what Unilever is doing right now is the prime example. Many congratulations to Unilever Pakistan and Tufail Chemicals for achieving this milestone.’’ Amir Paracha, Chairman and CEO, Unilever Pakistan, highlighted: “Unilever Pakistan is the country’s largest manufacturer of shampoo and hair care products, manufacturing 53,000 tonnes of hair care products in 2021. One of our key raw materials for shampoos earlier used to be imported from China, Thailand or Egypt. 

This partnership will make Pakistan self-sufficient in this key raw material, reducing our dependency on imports and opening up new avenues for exports.” Zubair Farid Tufail, CEO, Tufail Chemicals, added: “Our new plant is capable of manufacturing international quality LABSA and SLES, which will open up additional avenues for Pakistani exports to American, European and Asian markets. This is in line with our vision to promote localisation and enable further import substitution. In addition, this effort has also created jobs for local industry due plant expansion and additional supply chain requirements within the country.”