‘Selling books in Pakistan is like selling glasses to blind peoples,’ says Ahmed Saeed, CEO Saeed Book Bank

For some people in Islamabad, Saeed Book Bank represents more than a bookstore. This complete bookstore is clearly the largest in Islamabad in terms of book space, perhaps largest in the country, and as per its current custodian, largest in South Asia. BR Research recently sat down with Ahmed Saeed, CEO of the Saeed Book Bank. Saeed, who has an MBA and is in his mid-forties, assumed full charge of the decades-old venture following the death of his father, who was the founding figure of the bookstore, in September 2015.

Selected, edited excerpts follow from that conversation, which centered on the local book economy.

BR Research: First up, please take us through the history of this independent bookstore?

Ahmed Saeed: My father, Saeed Jan Qureshi, established this business almost 65 ago years in 1952. My grandfather was a helper with a very big landlord in interior Sindh. My father was the first person to study middle (8) class in that area. My grandfather usually took my father to the house of the landlord to maintain his library. The landlord was very fond of collecting leather-bound, hand-written, original manuscript books. Normally once a month, Quaid-e-Azam also visited that landlord. Whenever he visited, my father was there. He used to read a lot of books on history, Islamic law, philosophy and he’d ask my father to bring him the books from the library. In this way, my father did his Matriculation in 1938.

Quaid-e-Azam asked the landlord to help my father with further studies, or help him to do some business. There was a very famous bookshop, London Book Company, in Rawalpindi. They had over 12 branches over Greater India. Normally, Quaid-e-Azam got his books from Rawalpindi. He called the owner of that shop and said ‘I am sending a gentleman, he remembers books by title, face, color, and he’ll be a big asset to you.’

My father joined the London Book Company, Rawalpindi after Matriculation and served for around three years. The owner was so much pleased with the performance of my father that she promoted him to Manager for her Peshawar branch. He served there for some time and after the creation of Pakistan, the owners of London Book Company left for the UK and sold all their branches. So, my father opened his own book business in Peshawar in 1952. The Islamabad Saeed Book Bank was established in 1999.

BRR: When did you get started?

AS: This goes back to my childhood days. And by the time I was 15, I used to come and assist my father. Now I am 47. So I have been doing this for over thirty years now.

BRR: How much is the floor space here? And how many books do you keep here as inventory?

AS: At present we have got more than 200,000 books on all subjects. We have got few warehouses. Mostly we keep two to three books in the showroom and the higher quantity is in our warehouse. This bookstore has 36,000 square feet of space over three floors. In terms of inventory and area, we are the largest independent bookstore in South Asia.

BRR: You have books on all subjects but what do you specialize in?

AS: We keep books on all subjects. We are the stockiest and distributor of 105 major publishers/book group of the world. So in this way we have got latest and best-seller books on all subjects from children pre-school level to highly advance scientific, technical academic and professional books. Besides, we have got an edge that my father served this industry for over 65 years, so he knew every field of books and subject in demand.

BRR: Why keep all kinds of books?

AS: In Pakistan, selling books is like selling glasses to blind people. Nobody is interested in buying books due to huge difference in the value of our currency with US Dollar and Pound. Besides, business can only flourish provided strong or growing economy, security, tourism and superb infrastructure that lead to the creation of universities, industries etc. In order to survive, we have to maintain a huge variety of books. We take every effort that any person that visits our shop can find the book of his or her choice.

Secondly, with the Grace of Almighty, my father had established a remarkable credibility, which is an asset for this establishment. Most of the publishers from UK and US offer their books on sales\credit. So for the last 40-50 years, we don’t have any investment in this business other than this property.

BRR: Are you breaking even? Is the business profitable?

AS: My father was very fond of reading. He had more than 3,000 books in his room which now I inherited. Apart from passion, it’s a good business because all the customers that relate to book industry are decent, elegant, educated, sophisticated and soft-spoken people. This is an edge as compared to other business.

There was a time when business was very good, when there were no terrorism activities. I remember that time was during 1975 to 1990. I was in Peshawar, and we used to get a lot of tourist people, NGOs, etc. Our counter cash box often got more foreign currency like Dutch Mark, Dollars and Pounds as compared to Pak Rupees. At that time there were lots of foreign Mission, NGO’s, etc. working in Pakistan and Afghanistan who were our major customers.

Then because of terrorism issues and economic crisis in our country, the business began to decline and it wasn’t breaking even. Around 1998-99, we got some threats from different people warning us to avoid keeping books like English Non\fiction, foreign magazines and newspapers etc.  We went to the local law and enforcement authorities but didn’t get the required security. So there was no option other than to move. So we closed our Peshawar showroom and got established in Islamabad in 1999.

There are a lot of pilferage issues in our showroom but as a matter of policy my late father never punished a student or shop lifter rather he asked them to take the book and return in the same mint condition day after. These shoplifters studying books not only changed bad habits over time but also become our loyal customers. Almost every week lot of people visit my office and give some amount for the book they have stolen in their youth but later realizing their mistake regret and pay us. So these are the books that cure individual and society.

I really feel honor when people come to our showroom and give credit that we are successful in their practical life and society because of this showroom and introduce their children or even grand children with a remark that they are our first or second generation customers. So this is a very big credit for us and a strong motto to continue this business no matter we earn enough or not.

BRR: In your opinion, what has the demand for books been like over time? Can you comment on people’s reading habits?

AS: In 1999, we normally had clients of 300 to 400 people per day. Nowadays it is double, which is due to our massive collection, besides an increase in educational institute and improvement in literacy rate. But it can further improve a lot if security and economic issues start getting solved.

As far as electronic media is concerned, like Kindle and smartphones, a lot of people were concerned about what would happen to the book trade. But we have seen that with the passage of time, the reading habit for hardcopy has actually increased. When a person reads a good book on Kindle or smartphone or on the Internet, then he or she tries to own that book for his personal collection so that his family members can benefit by that. That can happen only when hard copy\book gets available in his or her house\study\room.

In the same way very often when a book become best seller or popular and gets pirated, people in the beginning buy those books and then after liking the author\manuscript they tend to buy more books by the same author. So they come to us as other books by the same author are not yet pirated. Electronic media, I think, has increased the reading habits. But more could be done. Nowadays, in a lot of schools, children don’t have any library period anymore. From childhood, the reading habit can get developed in an individual.

BRR: Are book fairs and literary festivals helping reading habits?

AS: Due to security issues, international authors and publishers avoid to come to book launch in Pakistan. So sometimes we are stuck with a huge quantity of books that we purchased from abroad.  Nowadays few Pakistani International authors like Omer Shahid and Mohsin Hamid have written wonderful books and given a good push to book industry.

BRR: Can you comment on the size of the book economy?

AS: In Pakistan print run of an average general book is 1,000 copies. A book that does very well is around 5,000 copies. But sales can definitely improve when peace, security issue and economic problems get solved.

BRR: Why can’t book selling be a viable business?

AS: It’s not possible for a new person to set up a book shop, no matter how much finances they have. Over the past decade, you’ve seen new grocery stores, new garment stores, but no new book stores. This business involves huge capital, huge investment on property. It takes 40-50 years to make credibility from publishers. Unless they support you, you cannot start a business.

BRR: What is it that the government can do to support book sellers?

AS: The government can try to develop reading habits of kids in elementary classes. I still remember in my early school days our teachers used to take the complete class to library for 45 minutes and we were given assignment to write and submit a brief summary of three books a week.

BRR: Are there any taxes on books?

AS: All over the world, there are no taxes on books, but in Pakistan they charge 6 percent withholding tax at import stage, 4.5 percent at the time of supply and then 10 percent at the end of the year in spite of the two taxes before.

 BRR: Who regulates the book industry? Who monitors the content?

AS: As per my knowledge there’s nothing like that. Normally when we attend international book fair the publishers briefly explain about the content of the book and we, keeping in our mind the market and demand, place order for the new and forthcoming books which we get all along the years.

BRR: How are you able to review so many books?

AS: We get emails and catalogues from different publishers across the world every day and from that after viewing the contents of the book and having in mind the demand of market we place order.

BRR: Do you have plans for entering the online space?

AS: We have recently started online, and at present we are doing good business. Hopefully we will be able to get a good share in the market.

BRR: Tell us about the piracy issue. How many books are pirated?

AS: Most of the books, either general or text, very often get pirated but as a matter of policy we are the only bookseller in Pakistan who don’t keep pirated books. In the beginning, no doubt our business suffered due to difference in price but later, when customers need more books by the same author which are not in available in market as pirated, then they buy original books from us.

Concluded…