The calendar connect

A Parsi entrepreneur based in Dubai, UAE, recently created a mini record of sorts by producing the first ever Zoroastrian calendar in this part of the world. All these years, Zoroastrian expatriates living in the Middle East have always relied on getting their calendars — and yummy edibles — from India, when they generally make their annual summer trip. But not so this time, thanks to the coronavirus crisis. The enterprising businessman is "Firoze Jal Vandrewalla” who invariably brings in his father’s name when introducing himself. He is the founder of Al Mawakeb Trading Co LLC, an office and warehouse shelving, storage and materials handling firm in Dubai that will complete 25 years in June 2021.
"Every year, I bring about 10 calendars from Bombay to gift them to friends. I have always wanted to print a calendar myself. I could afford to do so and this year was the right time,” he says. It was at a Parsi friend’s luncheon on Shahenshahi Navroz in 2020 that he decided he would bring out a Zoroastrian calendar. As a first-timer, he had to spend many hours with his printer and chalk out a decent digital design incorporating the Fasli, Kadmi and Shahenshahi rozs, and including the UAE holidays. He ended up spending more than he anticipated but "it is all for a good cause, so no regrets.” The 100 calendars he printed were distributed for free to community members in September. A Parsi calendar hanging on one’s wall is part of one’s Parsipanu. To go a whole year without it is to miss the essence of being a Parsi Zoroastrian.
Vandrewalla was working as a sales engineer in the Forklift division of Godrej and Boyce Manufacturing Company Limited when he was selected to go to Muscat, Oman, in 1983 to represent the company with their dealer Khimji Ramdas who was opening a new division for office shelving and materials handling. Muscat was a laidback city. The business thrived with few competitors and Vandrewalla, who now had a wife and two sons, found the going good. But he craved for professional advancement. "The way things were, I would have had to wait forever for a promotion till my boss retired. So it was time to seek greener pastures,” he observed. Neighboring Dubai was already on his work radar and when the opportunity arose in 1994, he shifted base. Two years, two jobs and some savings later, the business bug bit him. "I was handling everything from A to Z, including money collection, so I thought why don’t I start my own firm?”
Al Mawakeb Trading Co LLC, a 100% independent venture, was born in his local sponsor’s warehouse at Ghusais, Dubai, where it is still located. The establishment is a complete solution provider for warehouses — consultation, design, installation and maintenance. Its range of products includes shelving, racking, mezzanine floors, plastic bins and organizers, forklifts and reach trucks, automated radio frequency-controlled Deep Drive-In, plastic and steel pallets (small, low, portable platforms on which goods are placed for storage or moving, as in a warehouse or vehicle) and steel furniture. Vandrewalla owes an indirect debt to the chiding of a cousin’s husband, who hails from the business community of Bohris. "He used to always tell me, ‘Bawaji-o thi kae dhando nahi thae (Bawajis can’t do any business).’ That used to irritate me no end. I decided this is the time of opportunity, let me take it and jump into it.”

And leap he did. Initially, things were tough as he didn’t have enough capital, brands and experience. But what he lacked in these areas, he compensated by heaps of self-belief. "There were no doubts; I was always confident I was doing the right thing. The only issue holding me back was the capital,” he reminisces, adding that he ploughed whatever he made back into the business (a strategy he still continues). "I used to buy a container, sell it, get the money and buy another container. That’s how I functioned in the early days.” To date, he has never taken any loans. While the sons were away at school, wife Dinaz pitched in to help in everything, with her forte being the economics side. She still looks after the ‘finance department’ even as the boys, Zubin, 29, and Vaspan, 27, have joined the family concern. So have Firoze’s brother-in-law and nephew.
Initially, he took on a couple of agencies and was also selling Godrej products. Soon, he launched his own brand, Wings, whose logo is the distinctive wings and tail of the Asho Farohar with the letter ‘F’ (for Firoze) marked in a circle in the center. Always keen to attend exhibitions to check out, procure and introduce new products in his field, the breakthrough, he says, came in 2003 at a US exhibition when he came across a Swedish-made automated machine-handling system or a pallet runner. "It is a robot-like machine which you put on a rack,” he states. The remote controlled machine goes inside, picks out the pallet on which the product rests and returns. "So, it gets rid of the cumbersome, laborious and time-consuming task of manually entering the rack and bringing out the pallet. You can also stack much more in the same amount of space,” he explains, adding that this was a real game-changer for his enterprise.

Management team and support staff of Vandrewalla (2^nd from r)

Old-fashioned word-of-mouth publicity, a personal touch and a hands-on approach are the unique selling propositions of the loquacious Firoze, a diploma holder in mechanical engineering. He had spent his formative years as a boarder at Poona’s J. N. Petit Technical High School. His family hails from Bombay’s S. P. Bharucha Baug where he was one of four children of Jal, an accountant, and Katy, a homemaker. In an age when technology rules, he prefers to ditch emails and phone calls, go across and meet people (even in Covid times), converse over a cup of chai and clinch the deal. "I am the kind of guy who will not work out things on the phone, I like person-to-person contact. That helps because if I do a good job, (the client) will recommend me to another and so on,” he points out, claiming that they have never needed to advertise or promote the undertaking. Old clients have become friends over the years: he can count on them to call him over for a chat, which in the course of the conversation has often transformed to a work opportunity. He is proof that good public relations skills work. "Basically, I like one-on-one interaction which helps me to relax even while working,” he maintains.
As the chief executive officer, 61-year-old Firoze is involved in all aspects from concept to completion and supervises everything from time to time. This makes Al Mawakeb Trading Co stand out. Half the people in this field are not qualified to do the job, he observes. "They are here because the money is good. For example, if I ask a salesman about the thickness of a rack, he will say, ‘Sir, I don’t know. I will check and let you know.’ Whereas in our company’s case, I know A-Z about the product and if I say that something will work, it definitely will. Otherwise, I would not be selling it.”
Money or profit has never been the raison d’etre of his work – yes, money is important but he believes one must not chase it. "Where are we going to take all the money we make in this life?... I know how much we have sold; I keep a track of who has not paid me. I don’t bother to see how much profit we have made since I know my business is doing well.” He goes by the philosophy that if one does a good job, the profits will flow. And with Dinaz micromanaging the finances, Firoze is reassured his company is in good hands.

From l: Vaspan, Firoze, Dinaz, daughter-in-law Zehra and Zubin Vandrewalla

So where does he see his organization going from here? Firoze would like to expand his set-up cautiously with the support of his sons. With many expats losing their jobs in the UAE, Al Mawakeb sensed an opening and launched a moving and relocation division. He says he is blessed to have his children working with him unlike friends whose offspring reside in foreign lands. A scuba diver certified by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors, a part of Firoze dreams of taking things a little easy in the future but then he knows that he is "not the kind who can sit still at home without anything to do.”
Active in the UAE’s Parsi community where he is known to be affable, helpful and down-to-earth, Firoze has been a member of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC) since inception and was part of the delegation that traveled to Karachi in 2007 to start the WZCC chapter there. He has assisted Parsis to set up shop in the UAE but the experience has not been entirely pleasant. "Many Parsis come here from India after retirement to make money but most of them have failed and returned. I have tried to support them in their entrepreneurial efforts, even losing money in the process. The less I say, the better.” Dinaz adds, "Parsis are not business minded any more, they prefer cushy jobs with big salaries.”
Both are ardent followers of Zoroastrianism and say they have tried to inculcate the three tenets of good thoughts, good words and good deeds in their children. "We tell them that at the end of the day, customers will call you again if you have done a good, honest job. That is all that matters.”