Mustaq Ahmad

 

A Prodigious Peddler

 

The lack of a prestigious MBA has not prevented India-born Mustaq Ahmad from turning his makeshift street stall into a multi-million dollar retail business. Mustafa Centre, which he built in Little India, is the go-to place for both local and overseas shoppers on the hunt for a good deal, for just about any basic essentials, and more.

 

Mustaq Ahmad arrived in Singapore from Uttar Pradesh, India, in 1956 when he was five years old. Throughout his childhood, he peddled tea, bread and handkerchiefs from a pushcart with his father and uncle. When he became older, he began selling handkerchiefs next to his father’s stall. His father saw the potential of Mustaq’s venture, and it galvanised him to set up a makeshift store at Campbell Lane selling clothes for adults and children.

Mustaq left school after Secondary Four to work full-time at his family’s enterprise. When the government imposed a ban on street stalls in the 1970s, he convinced his father to move into a permanent space in Campbell Lane. It was named Mohamed Mustafa & Samsuddin, after his father and uncle. Their enterprise took off, and the family went on to rent a larger space along Serangoon Road in order to expand their business. In 1995, Mustaq acquired a row of shophouses along Syed Alwi Road and built the Mustafa Centre, a six-storey building. He also renovated the old store at Serangoon Road and reopened a branch of Mustafa Centre there. The two buildings are a stone’s throw away from each other.

Reflecting on his choice to drop out of school to focus on building a business, Mustaq said in a 2006 interview with The Straits Times, “Talent is not just about paper qualifications. It’s really people doing something with passion and a great deal of interest.” A dedicated businessman, Mustaq, who became a Singapore citizen in 1991, is known for this work ethic, arriving early at the office and leaving late.

He has tried to impart his work ethic and business acumen to his four children. They have all had a stint on the shop floor, as Mustaq believes that serving customers is the best way to learn the ropes of the retail business. He said in a 1996 interview with The Business Times that sales personnel “have the best ideas”. Mustaq himself closely watches consumer habits so that he can stock his store, popularly known just as “Mustafa”, to meet their needs.

Mustafa has a straightforward business model—it offers customers competitive prices for a wide range of goods because these goods are bought directly from the production source. Each department has dedicated buyers who are responsible for the direct sourcing of products, even travelling to the countries where the products are made.

Mustafa has become a shopping haven for those living in Singapore and a must-see attraction for tourists who flock there to buy goods at a bargain. The store is now spread across 400,000 sq ft, the size of almost seven football fields, and it sells over 300,000 products. These range from jewellery to gold bars; from perfumes to hiking shoes; and from electronics to Chaunsa mangoes from Pakistan.

To cope with the increasing volume of international customers, Mustafa Centre has hired sales people who speak different languages, and also built two extensions to the original shopping mall. And, it is always open. The idea to operate around the clock stemmed from the 24-hour service that emergency rooms in hospitals provide. “Some people need goods at odd hours,” Mustaq rationalised. The centre is open even on public holidays.

Mustafa has been successful on most fronts, but not all of its innovations have turned out as planned. Before online shopping became popular, it launched a mail-order business in 1994 to provide special services to international shoppers who could order the products online and have them sent to the airport as part of their baggage. This was extended to a full-fledged online shopping experience in 1998 where customers could browse the product catalogue and purchase them through Mustafa Centre’s website. During the year that the service was available, sales peaked at
$1 million a month in June. But the auto service payment ground to a halt in July 1999 when the system was bedeviled by security issues such as credit card fraud. Its online website, Mustafa.com.sg, is now used for advertising its offerings and not for direct selling to consumers.

Today, Mustafa proudly says on its website that it has an annual sales volume of $725 million and employs over 1,800 staff. Recognising Mustaq's accomplishments in Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his 2006 National Day Rally speech said, “You get the right foreigner here, he creates thousands of jobs for Singaporeans, like Mr Mustaq. And you need to get more people like him.”

References

“3 Indian-origin businessmen in Singapore’s Top 40: Forbes,” The Economic Times, July 28, 2011.

“About Mustafa,” Mustafa Centre, accessed February 2015,
http://www.mustafa.com.sg/frmAboutUs.aspx

Bharat Bhaskar, Electronic Commerce: Framework, Technologies and Application
(India: Tata McGraw-Hill, 2009).

“Create Distinctive Niches to Gain an Edge, Retailers Told,” The Straits Times, July 5, 1995.

Edna Koh, “Mustafa Let Down by E-Commerce,” The Straits Times, December 13, 1999.

Zakir Hussein, “S’pore Needs More Talented Foreigners Like Mustafa’s Managing Director,”
The Straits Times, August 21, 2006.

S. Tsering Bhalla, “At least 180,000 shoppers throng the store each year,” The Straits Times, September 23, 1994.

“The Man who Built Mustafa Centre,” The Business Times, November 30, 1996.

 

 

Mustaq Ahmad
India, b.1951