Fu-wang Foods announces lay-off amid gas crunch

Fu-wang Foods, a listed food products maker, has announced a factory lay-off for six months, citing inadequate gas pressure and rising raw material prices.

In a disclosure on the Dhaka Stock Exchange website yesterday, the company said its board had decided the lay-off for six months starting Saturday.

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The company is classified in the Z category, reserved for firms with poor financial and compliance records.

Fu-wang Foods has 992 employees, according to its website.

This is the first time a listed company has announced a lay-off amid the recent gas crisis.

Fu-wang was already struggling before the latest gas crisis. It failed to pay dividends for the past two financial years and did not hold its annual general meeting, leading to its downgrade to the Z category.

It incurred a loss of Tk 3.7 crore in the first three quarters of 2024-25. Later, it did not publish any financial reports.

The situation was so dire that the company told the DSE in October 2025 that an auction had been held of the head office of Fu-wang Foods Limited by Dhaka Bank Limited against a loan provided by the bank. The company informed the DSE in response to a notice.

The company also said, “We are negotiating with the officials of Dhaka Bank Limited to mitigate the loan status with our company.”

“At the same time, we are going to move a writ petition subject to consideration of the loan status of the company and hope to settle the issue with the bank in a short period of time,” it said.

Mohammad Zaman, company secretary of the food company, told The Daily Star that the bank issue had already been resolved as the loan was rescheduled.

“Now, raw material prices have risen while gas pressure is also limited. For both problems, the board decided to lay off the factory,” he said.

Meanwhile, the impact of the gas crisis that began on July 21 this year is spreading across the country’s industrial belts, with factories cutting production, shutting units and sending workers on leave.

Factory owners said gas pressure, which had gradually declined before the latest crisis, fell from the normal 15 pounds per square inch (PSI) to 2-4 PSI last week and then to almost zero over the past few days.

Yesterday, its shares dropped 0.89 percent to Tk 11.10 at the DSE.