Content area
Full text
A modest beginning
For many investors, the Army Welfare Trust (AWT) and its Askari subsidiaries have become synonymous with quality, growth and good profits. AWT's progress has also helped it to be recognized as a fast emerging business group, reaching far beyond its initial scope of just being an army-backed business organization generating profits for the welfare of army personnel. But what is AWT's recipe for success?
Dr Safdar Butt, AWT's finance director acknowledges that the group "enjoys credibility because of the image of being backed by the army". But he adds: "It is a commercially run organization where decisions are driven purely by business interests."
AWT's credentials only become impressive in the background of its recent emergence on Pakistan's business scene. Established as a society in 1971, with total assets of Rs700,000 (US$205,000) to work as a fairly small-scale operation for raising money for the welfare of ex-army personnel, AWT has grown to become a large commercial conglomerate with present total group assets valued at approximately Rs22.3 billion. That represents a phenomenal growth in recent years, up from total assets of Rs9.1 billion towards the end of 1993 to Rs19.71 billion towards the end of 1994.
However, even with its stunning performance, AWT remains proud of its rather modest beginnings such as farms or facilities to manufacture shoes for troops which was one of the group's first activities when it began its operations. Today, those small-sized operations have turned big and AWT is getting into larger-scale ventures which rank among important industrial and business ventures on Pakistan's national scene.
Diverse ventures
In one respect, AWT's growth is part of the growing presence of organizations backed by the defence forces which have fast emerged on the country's business horizon. Dedicated to maintaining commercial sense, discipline and dynamism, the effect of such organizations is felt across the board in many areas providing different services as well as business-cum-industrial enterprise.
In AWT's case, the farm business consists of five farms spawning over...