Rasoul Tahmassebi was born in Tehran in 1959 and studied business administrative at Business School after graduating high school in 1977. However, based on his personal interest and the possibility to use the modern experiences and technology of the advanced countries he decided to go overseas to continue his higher education. In 1982, after he had gotten admission at Vienna Technical University, he travelled to Austria and majored in software engineering.
After graduation, he started working for at the headquarters of Bau-Max company and taking educational courses at purchase psychology, sales psychology, and research of operations. He eventually returned to Iran after 10 years of collecting experiences.
He has taken many executive responsibilities in Iran since his arrival in the country including:
1. The Commercial Manager of United Chemical Co., affiliated to Melli Industrial Group, the major supplier of raw materials and macjinery for all the factories affiliated to Melli Industrial Group. As a result of Mr Tahmassebi's successful presence in the aforementioned company, the aforementioned company is the representative of Dutch Argolanda Co. and Italian S-E-B Co., and they have presence on the market of Africa, Russia, and Middle East as the exporting company of the products manufactured by Melli Industrial Group for the first time.
2. The Commercial Manager of the national project of Maraghe Paper in 2002. He had a highly successful record in launching this project by the operationalization of the plant from the outset in the field of procurement and import of machinery and raw materials either from domestic or foreign sources.
3. The Commercial Manager of Pars Khazar Co. in 2004. Since the project of Maraghe Paper was completed , Mr. Tahmassebi was absorbed by Pars Khazar Company. However, since the company was located in Rasht and far from Tehran and sssimultaneous cooperation of Mr. Tahmassebi with Majd Company affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture, he cooperated with Pars Khazar Co. for a short while.
4. Since 2005, Mr. Rasoul Tahmassebi has been absorbed as the Commercial Manager by Urmia Sugar Co. due to his valuable commercial experiences inside and outside the country . His executive potential and competence has been so high that he has been simultaneously taken on the commercial responsibilities of one of the affiliated companies to the Developing Nectar Industrial Inc., Nectar Pubic Stock Co., and the sales responsibility of Urmia Golfam Co.
5. Since 2011, he has been the managing director of Partak Trading Co. and provided them with great services.
6. At present, he is working for the Cooperative Company of Association of Executives in Carton and Corrugated Sheet Industries as the managing director, and it has been introduced as the best cooperative of the country in 2016.
What are the most important strategies of the cooperative?
The targets of the cooperative are to adjust the market of paper and carton, to support its own members with the existing funds, to purchase of the products in large quantities and to sell them to its members with quite reasonable prices and sometimes by credit facilities which cause the manufacturer to reduce its cost price which leads to consumer's profit and strengthening domestic manufacturers or suppliers of foreign paper.
Do the existing cartons and sheets meet the requirements of the country?
At present, regarding the relative depression dominated the country economy, the requirements of cartons and corrugated sheets are evaluated around 600000 tons the domestic production of which was announced 520000 tons in 2015 and 620000 tons in 2014 by the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Business. The highest production of the cartons in the best conditions of economy is from 750000 to 800000 tons per year. Based on the statistics released by the Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Business, the capacity of carton production has become 2500000 tons by the early 2016. However, at present according to the data of the same ministry, the figure has increased at 3000000 tons. It means that around 2.5 to 3 times as much as the domestic requirements, the carton producing machines have been installed and launched in the country.
Could you please let us know the rank and position of Iran's cartons and sheets in the world?
Carton is a mediocrity commodity, and the construction of a carton production unit does not need a complicated scientific and technical knowledge. In most countries, the construction of the required production units is at a reasonable level. Regarding the fact that paper forms 80% of the cost price of cartons, and the transport of cartons for long distances has a great role in their costs, it is not common to export cartons and empty cartons (apart from certain ones) in the world, and only they are exported among neighboring countries when the export is economically feasible. Therefore, carton production is not considered a defined economical index and there is no ranking in this field in the global assessment. Perhaps the carton consumption in each country is regarded as one of the factors of economic prosperity on the field of which the authorities of the world economy unfortunately do not make research, either.
What are the problems of carton and paper industries in Iran?
The fundamental problems of carton and cardboard industries in the country are caused by two internal and external factors apart from the relative stagnation of the economy. External problem is originated from the indiscriminate use of polymeric packaging due to their domestic production of polymeric materials; their cheaper price compared the price of paper, carton, and other cellulose packages. Despite the acute environmental problems of polymeric packages, the Environmental Organization has not been able to limit polymeric packaging in the country because of different reasons including lack of dependable rules. The internal problems is caused by indiscriminate and excessive construction of cardboard and carton manufacturing mills in the country which are much more than the required demand. I am afraid it has caused the unhealthy and destructive competition of some manufacturers who use low quality paper in their production to be able to sell their products more cheaply. In practice they cause damages to the consumers' purchased goods and unconventional wastes. That is why some consumers are attempting to replace cartons with polymeric packages.
Could you please let us have a brief introduction for the Cooperative Company of Association of Executives in Carton and Corrugated Sheet Industries?
The Association of Carton and Cardboard managers was established in 2005 with the following objectives:
• Attempting to preserve and protect the union members' rights
• Attempting to create welfare facilities such as cooperative housing, cooperative consumption store, cooperative funs for members
• Researching and monitoring the required technological and economical requirements for cardboard and carton industries continuously and formulating desirable proposals and offering them to Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Business of the country and other beneficiary organizations.
• Cooperating other industrial organizations inside and outside the country and/ or becoming the member of the organizations helping to improve domestic industries, to progress the economical and scientific objectives, and to promote quantitative and qualitative level of this field of industry.
With the above defined objectives, the cooperative tried to complete its role in the fields of economy, financial exchange and macro- policies. As a result, the Cooperative Company of Association of Executives in Carton and Corrugated Sheet Industries was established in 2010 to meet the economical requirements of its members.
At present, the cooperative company is active to supply raw materials at the lowest price in order to regulate the market, to hold training and technical courses, to visit different factories inside the country and in future overseas, and even to follow up the insurance services for its members.