Status: Active Founded in 1894 Founder: Maulvi Feroz-ud-Din Country: Pakistan Headquarters: Lahore Distribution: Nationwide Known associates: Abdul Ghani Barq Publications: Books and Magazines Ferozsons Limited is a Pakistani publishing company in Lahore, Pakistan. Established in 1894, it is Pakistan’s oldest publishing house. The Ferozsons Business Group expanded in 1954, when one of the family members founded Ferozsons Laboratories - one of Pakistan’s first pharmaceutical companies.
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 Raj William Bell. He also authored many books, his first being the Urdu translation of Data Ganj Baksh’s book “Kushuf-ul-Mujoob.” Maulvi Ferozuddin established 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. Company has five outlets in Lahore and one each in Karachi and Rawalpindi with its head-office at The Mall road, Lahore.
Closure of historic branch
The iconic building -- 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 historic bookstore survived a blaze which raged on for days and caused losses worth an estimated Rs150 million. The fire erupted on May 30 and caused the wooden roof of the building to collapse. Within a month of the inferno, the bookstore again opened its doors to the public. 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 glory.
Publications
Some of its publishing books, journals and magazines are:
