Micky Jagtiani, founder of retail and hospitality conglomerate Landmark Group.
Indian billionaire Mukesh “Micky” Jagtiani, a retailing tycoon in the Middle East, passed away in Dubai on Friday, after a prolonged illness. The founder of the Dubai-based retail giant Landmark Group had battled diabetes for several years.
“He leaves behind enduring friendships, partnerships, and bonds with the Group’s senior management, the industry and wider community, whose lives he touched profoundly,” according to a statement from Landmark.
“Micky Jagtiani was much more than just a very successful, rich entrepreneur,” said Arvind Singhal, chairman of Technopak Advisors. “Not only he was an exceptional visionary who could see the potential of the Gulf region as a consumer market much before most others, but was also a uniquely creative individual who conceptualised many formidable retail concepts which have successfully stood the test of time and geography.”
Jagtiani started virtually from scratch. His parents migrated to Kuwait in the 1950s after the first oil boom but sent their younger son to study in Mumbai and thereafter to accounting school in London. Jagtiani ended up dropping out and had to clean hotel rooms and work as a taxi driver in London to sustain himself. In 1972, he returned to the Gulf where he lost his older brother and his parents in quick succession.
With $6,000 of family money, he started Landmark as a single baby products store in Bahrain in 1973 targeted at South Asian immigrants. From that modest beginning, he moved to Dubai in 1992 just when the emirate was trying to transform itself into a shoppers’ paradise. He went on to grow Landmark into one of the largest retail and hospitality conglomerates in the Middle East and India, with a growing presence across Southeast Asia and Africa.
Today the group employs 42,000 people, operates over 2,200 outlets with a retail presence of over 30 million sq. ft. across 24 countries. Landmark has over 50 brands in retail, hospitality, hypermarkets, logistics and distribution businesses. The group’s store brands include Centrepoint, Babyshop, Shoemart, Splash, and Home Centre. While in the hotel and restaurant space, it operates such brands as Citymax budget hotels, Nando’s, Krispy Kreme and Carluccio’s.
Landmark Group entered India in 1999 and developed a range of retail formats including Lifestyle and Max for clothes and Home Centre for furniture and home furnishings. To support its retail operations, Landmark made a foray into logistics and distribution and developed over 9.3 million sq. ft. of total warehouse space across the Gulf. Apart from its core businesses, Landmark under Jagtiani launched Beat Diabetes in 2009 as an initiative that aims to increase awareness regarding the prevention and management of diabetes.
Until his illness, Jagtiani ran his retailing empire with a personal touch and with an eye for detail. When he started out in Bahrain for example, he did much of the work himself, picking up boxes from a nearby port, stacking inventory, mopping floors. As he once said to Forbes: “Retail is not rocket science. I have always been a hands-on person.” At the time of his death, Jagtiani had a net worth of $5.2 billion and ranked No.517 on the Real-Time Billionaire ranking. The retailing tycoon joined the World’s Billionaires list for the first time in 2008.
Jagtiani is survived by his wife Renuka and three children Aarti, Nisha and Rahul, who are closely involved in running the business. With Jagtiani ailing, his wife Renuka was overseeing the group’s affairs. Eldest daughter Aarti is a group director and plays a key role across the group’s Babyshop, Home Centre and Home Box brands. Daughter Nisha, also a group director, oversees human resources and CSR initiatives. Son Rahul, group director, is in charge of the ecommerce business in the Middle East and India.
“The Landmark Group remains committed to carrying forward his spirit and ensuring the continuing success of his ambitions and dreams,” the group said in a statement.