heikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum with the late Landmark Group founder Mukesh ``Micky`` Jagtiani.
PHOTO BY TWITTER
Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum gave Mukesh “Micky” Jagtiani a touching tribute on Twitter following the recent death of the Dubai-based tycoon.
Jagtiani died on Friday (May 26) after a prolonged illness. He was 71.
But who was Jagtiani? The Indian businessman was the founder of Landmark Group. The group owns many brands in the UAE, including Viva, Babyshop, Max, Centrepoint, Emax, Homecentre, Home Box, Lifestyle, Fun City, Citymax Hotels and Oasis Mall. It also holds a franchise for Max’s Restaurant, Nandos, and Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, among others.
In a Twitter post, Sheikh Hamdan described Jagtiani as one of the most important figures in Dubai’s success stories. “We mourn the loss of Micky Jagtiani, the founder of Landmark Group and a integral part of Dubai’s success story. His philanthropic legacy and contributions to the UAE’s economy and society over the last three decades will be remembered forever. We extend our heartfelt condolences to his family and the Landmark Group team,” Sheikh Hamdan wrote.
Landmark Group, in a statement, said that Jagtiani “leaves behind enduring friendships, partnerships, and bonds with the Group’s senior management, the industry and wider community, whose lives he touched profoundly.” Jagtiani is survived by his wife Renuka and three children Aarti, Nisha and Rahul.
Jagtiani was a college dropout who made his millions using his acute business sense. He knew exactly what consumers wanted, and when.
Before becoming a retail tycoon, the Indian billionaire started from scratch. He was the youngest son of immigrant Indians in Kuwait. While his parents worked in Kuwait in the 1950s, he was left in Mumbai to study.
Jagtiani later went to London to study accounting, but dropped out. To eke out a living while there, he worked as a taxi driver and cleaned hotel rooms.
In 1972, he returned to the Gulf, but during this period his older brother and their parents died. Using $6,000 of his family’s money, Jagtiani opened Landmark in Bahrain with just one store for baby products in 1973. He moved his headquarters to Dubai in 1990 and opened the first Shoe Mart in the emirates. It was in Dubai where Jagtiani found immense business success with brands that targeted the expat communities. Landmark Group expanded to India in 1999.
Today, Landmark Group has more than 2,200 outlets in 21 countries. It has 42,000 employees and more than 50 brands in retail, hospitality, logistics and distribution.
Before his illness, Jagtiani was a hands-on business man. He was even seen carrying boxes at his store in Bahrain. In Dubai, he would chat with employees and insist that they call him only by his name “Micky”, a long-time employee told Expatmedia.net.
Jagtiani joined the World’s Billionaires list for the first time in 2008. At the time of his death, he had a net worth of $5.2 billion and was 517 on the ranking for world’s billionaires. ICA/Expat Media
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