Ferozsons

Ferozsons (Pvt) Limited (also Ferozsons Publishers) (Urdu: فیروزسنز) is a Pakistani publishing company in Lahore, Pakistan. Established in 1894, it is Pakistan’s oldest publishing house.

Ferozsons
StatusActive
Founded1894 (1894)
FounderMuqeet Salam
Country of originPakistan
Headquarters locationLahore
DistributionNationwide
Publication typesBooks and magazines
RevenueRs 950 million
No. of employees200
Official websiteferozsons.com.pk

In 1954, the Ferozsons Business Group expanded when one of the family members founded Ferozsons Laboratories, one of Pakistan’s first pharmaceutical companies.

[1][2]

History

Maulvi Ferozuddin was one of the most prominent scholars of his time, having been one of the first people to translate the Qur’an from Arabic to Persian and Urdu. For his achievements, Maulvi Ferozuddin is one of the few people to have been buried at Data Darbar, which is considered to be the oldest Sufi shrine of South Asia.

Maulvi Ferozuddin originally began publishing books at the behest of then Director Education of the British rule William Bell. He also authored many books, his first being the Urdu translation of Data Ganj Baksh’s book “Kushuf-ul-Mujoob.”

Maulvi Ferozuddin originally established Ferozsons Limited in Chohotay Mufti Baqar inside the historical walled city of Lahore. From the beginning, Maulvi Ferozuddin's vision of business extended beyond accumulating wealth, and he firmly incorporated the enrichment of human life in the under-developed South Asian region.

Thus the publishing house was created not only as a means of creating wealth, but as one of spreading literacy and education among the masses of the sub-continent.

In 1904, the company offices and printing plant then moved to its own purpose built premises on Circular Road, Sheranwala Gate. Ferozsons opened its first bookshop in 1947 on the Mall in Lahore which is also the company's head office.

Operations

Now the company is spread countrywide in 26 big cities of Pakistan. It does the publishing, printing and selling of the books. It is a large book distribution network in Pakistan. It has created its retailing and distribution network in 200 markets including Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi and other major cities of Pakistan.[3] Company has five outlets in Lahore and one each in Karachi and Rawalpindi with its head-office at The Mall road, Lahore.[4]

Closure of historic branch

The Ghulam Rasool building at The Mall, Lahore where Ferozsons started operations was closed down in January 2017, while the company operated from other branches in the city and elsewhere in the country. In the summer of 2012, the bookstore survived a fire which continued for days and caused losses worth an estimated Rs150 million. The fire started on May 30 and caused the wooden roof of the building to collapse.

Within a month of the fire, the bookstore opened to the public again. The management made temporary arrangements and restarted sales on June 27, 2012 with a five-member team managing it. However, the building itself took months to get restored to its former state.[5]

Publications

Some of its publishing books, journals and magazines are:

See also

References
  1. Sheikh, Majid (5 June 2012). "Childhood memories of a bookshop now in ashes". DAWN (newspaper). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  2. "Ferozsons Publishers – 430 works / 3 ebooks published between 1900 & 2012". Open Library website. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  3. "Ferozsons Bookshop". www.librarything.com. 24 December 1999. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  4. "Ferozsons Lahore". Starz Pakistan website. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  5. Sheikh, Ammar; Hafeez, Furqan; kemosabe; Soomro, Nasir (8 March 2017). "Iconic Ferozsons store itself now a part of history". The Express Tribune (newspaper). Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  6. Ferozsons English to English and Urdu Dictionary. Ferozsons (Pvt) Limited. 1973. ISBN 978-969-0-00510-6.
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