Transcom Group


Transcom Limited is a Bangladeshi business conglomerate. The businesses under this group include beverages, pharmaceuticals, newspapers, electronics, restaurants, distribution, etc. Transcom is the local agent or comprador of international brands. This group employs more than 20,000 people. Transcom Group is one of the oldest and biggest companies in Bangladesh. The family business operations initially started in 1878 with tea plantations. Munshi Rahim Baksh, was the first Muslim individual to own and operate tea plantations in the subcontinent. He then brought his nephew Khan Bahadur Waliur Rahman into the business who had expanded the operations. His son Khan Bahadur Mujibur Rahman, further grew the tea businesses and also engaged himself in the jute and trading. His sons Latifur Rahman and Saifur Rahman founded the present day Transcom Group of Companies in 1981 along with Shahnaz Rahman and AS Mahmud.

History

Latifur Rahman established Transcom Group in 1973 after W Rahman Jute Mills, the major earning source for the Rahman family, was nationalised in 1972. This diversified business house now has interests in many segments in the industrial and service sectors in Bangladesh. Transcom is the local agent or comprador of international brands like Pizza Hut, KFC, Pepsi and Philips, etc. Leading Danish insulin manufacturer Novo Nordisk has also chosen Transcoms pharmaceutical company Eskayef as the sole manufacturer of its products after China and India in Asia.
Some of the foreign brands managed by the group include: Pepsi, 7Up, Mirinda, Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, 7up Light, Aquafina, Sting, Evervess, KFC, Pizza Hut, Philips N.V, Whirlpool, Maybelline, Garnier, Heinz, Frito-Lay, Lindt, Servier, Novo Nordisk.
Transcom Group also owns two major newspapers, The Daily Prothom Alo and The Daily Star, and an FM radio channel, ABC Radio, to advocate in favour of their business policy.
Some other ventures by Transcom Group include pharmaceuticals, distribution, etc.
The chairman and CEO of Transcom Group, Latifur Rahman, won the 2012 Oslo Business for Peace Award for maintaining commitment to social responsibility and ethical values. Rahman was also the vice president of ICC Bangladesh, and chairman of Nestlé Bangladesh, Holcim Bangladesh and National Housing Finance and Investments. He was a director of Linde Bangladesh and member of the governing board of BRAC, the world's largest non-governmental organization.

List of companies

Companies

Associates

Criticism

In December 2024, Simin Rahman of Transcom Group was accused by his younger sister of embezzling her deceased father's shares through non-judicial stamp fraud. On 18 May 2025, Elias Hossain's YouTube investigative report program called Fifteen Minutes was shown, stating that Simin Rahman was unethically assisted by Prothom Alo editor Matiur Rahman and Daily Star's Mahfuz Anam in this matter, and Asif Nazrul dismissed the case without investigation due to his good relations with them.