How a 15 year old followed his dream and built the biggest cardboard packaging firm in Uganda, East Africa

At 15 years of age when most young people’s idea of having fun is clubbing, Ashish J. Thakkar, decided to start an IT company. In numerous media interviews Thakkar has said his motivation to start an IT firm was accidental. It started when he sold his personal computer to a friend and he made a handsome profit.

That was in 1995, shortly after his family had relocated to Uganda having been victims of Idi Amin’s decree to expel Asians in 1972.

Thakkar dropped out of school to pursue his entrepreneurial dream.

Today he is the owner of Mara Group that has interests in various business ventures (hotels, IT, real estate) on two continents, one of which is Riley Packaging Uganda Limited which he started in 1998.

Riley Packaging, which makes corrugated cardboard boxes for fast moving consumer goods and agro products has plants in Uganda and Kenya.

The firm manufactures a wide range of corrugated products from 3 to 9 ply corrugated boxes, various types of display stands and other related items made from corrugation.

It has revolutionized corrugated packaging in East Africa, with the creative and intelligent use of world class technologies and global capacities.

Thakkar has always pushed himself to grow the business by measuring himself against others.

For example, in the early 2000s when his first packaging plant in Uganda had grown to produce 30 tonnes of cardboard a month, he visited another facility making 3,000 tonnes per month.

That made him realize that he still had a long way to go.

Today, thanks to the growth of the economy, Riley Packging plant in Mukono produces tens of thousands of tonnes of cardboard every month.

It employs more than 500 workers and is in of the top 50 taxpayers according to Uganda Revenue Authority.

In 2021, the firm made a handsome profit of Shs 12 billion against a turnover of Shs 87 billion.

Words of advice

Thakkar advises would-be entrepreneurs that the road is not an easy one.

“As entrepreneurs we do have to be different, we do have to be daring,” he says. “It is an exciting journey, but you have to be prepared. It isn’t easy. You’re going to get knocked down so many times. You need to get up, you need to dust yourself off, and you need to get back to it.”