“Yes dad, you have put in so much effort and I don’t want it to go waste,” is 11-year-old Ahmed’s take on stepping into his father’s shoes. But for Yavar Dhala(36), ensuring that his sons take forward his 130 crore leather export business is not top priority. “I don’t dream of my sons taking to my business,” says he, “There are easier ways to make money, and honestly, I would never want to force them to do that.” But for Yavar, when he was himself all of eighteen, this was never a given option. “I was totally tuned to stepping into my father’s firm,” he tells us.
A BTech in leather technology, Yavar stepped into Forward Leather as the son of the owner, Azgar Ali Dhala, in 1986. With twenty workers and a business that dealt with trading in hides and skins and later tanning, the young man took the business forward into footwear and related products in 1990. He has not stepped back since, making quick strides into shoe uppers, shoes and outsoles. “We are probably one of the three of four companies in India today, who do it all ourselves, and who are vertically integrated in terms of production,” says Yavar.
Talking about those beginnings, he goes on to explain why it was such a big risk to take, stepping into footwear, when making just uppers was considered fairly safe business. “We were one of the pioneers in Chennai when we got into shoes,” Yavar elucidates, “Only one other company in Porur was making shoes at that time. You had to think season ahead, and had to do your own marketing.” But it was a footstep that was to pay off and help Yavar leap comfortably forward into greener paths.
One such was an Indo-Italian tie-up with Malaspina, the first Foreign Direct Investment in the component sector in soles in the country. Now the second, another Indo-Italian JV with Conceria Viginia, makes a mark as the first ever FDI in the tanning sector in India.
These and other achievements should make Yavar proud – but the man self-deprecatingly brushes them aside with… “…one should feel proud, but not arrogant.”
Born and brought up in Chennai, having schooled at Don Bosco, Yavar describes himself as conservative and very much a Chennai person. Fluent in Tamil, the man tells us how much the people and the city mean to him. “This business is purely about people, without the right people, you can’t move ahead.” And then with a touch of humour he adds, “I call myself the labour class. I work from 8am to 8pm…”
With fashion designer wife Rehane firmly on course with him on his sprint to success, Yavar takes on life as it comes. “I never imagined that I would be where I am today,” he muses, “Of course, you think you want to do certain things, you re-invent, improvise… I have a string that holds it all together.”
When leather does not hold center-stage, it’s cars(“the technicals, motor racing”), photography(“people and family”) and films(“the usual Hollywood stuff, I watch movies for sheer entertainment after a hard day’s work and not to see someone cry”) that he’s passionate about. “I lead a pretty boring lifestyle,” he says drily, “I don’t have much of a social life and I have stopped entertaining, even in the evenings. I would rather spend time with my wife and kids.”
With the first few difficult laps firmly behind him, Yavar could well afford to be comfortably `boring’! But not without telling us what really drives him to succeed. “You look at profit and work, you get nothing,” he tells us, “But you do it because you love the business, and the success in terms of the financial, will just come…”
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