From factory worker in KL to garment firm owner in Kathmandu

 

Krishna Timilsina also worked for a remittance company in the country. (phiten_nepal instagram pic)

PETALING JAYA: Two years of hard work in Malaysia was enough for Nepalese Krishna Timilsina to save RM23,000 (700,000 Nepalese rupees), a sum that has now catapulted him into a successful international garment exporter based in Kathmandu.

His company, Thread Garment, supplies clothes not only to Qatar and Dubai but also Malaysia where he had worked his fingers to the bone. In what he says as giving back to his country, he now employs 850 people in his branches.

“In 2008, I packed my bags and migrated overseas for work. I got a job at a factory in Malaysia, loading boxes full of surgical gloves onto shipping containers. It used to be so hot and humid inside the metal containers that I would be drenched in sweat.

“I had to stop to squeeze the sweat out of my wet t-shirt every half an hour or so. After that I got a job in a remittance company which was physically less taxing,” the 34-year-old told the Nepali Times in Kathmandu.

Armed with enough capital, Krishna left for home after two years to fulfil his dream of setting up his own clothing store, adding that people trusted him enough to lend him money for his business to expand.

“My business did well and I opened six more outlets across the capital. When I travelled to India, Bangladesh and China to source the garments for my store, I often wondered why we couldn’t manufacture the clothes in Nepal itself,” he said.

He finally mustered enough courage to purchase seven sewing machines and started making clothes in his apartment. When the response from his customers was encouraging, he added 60 more machines.

Before long, Krishna said, his Thread Garment became a full-fledged clothing supplier, producing menswear which he supplied to outlets all over Nepal. Among the products were tracksuits and sleeping bags.

“We also started supplying thermocots (thermal wear), which previously used to be imported, to the Nepal police and army.”

He said he did not receive any support from the Nepal government, adding that it would be helpful if it could help position Nepali garments and other locally made goods in Europe and the US.

Krishna was never trained in running a business and neither has he got a degree, completing only high school.

“But I know how to persevere. I am learning as I go. I believe that if I can do it, so can others.” - FMT