IN THE UAE
Mostafa Abdul Rahim Mostafawi has been on a magical ride since 1946, writes Esha Nag
At 87, Mostafa Abdul Rahim Mostafawi is still the boss of his carpet business. At home it’s another matter.
Mostafa Abdul Rahim Mostafawi is nothing like I imagined an 87-year old to be. For one, his memory is remarkably sharp (he shows me several hard-bound books where he’s been documenting his family history, a work in progress tracing his lineage at least several hundred years back) and secondly, he still has the last say in his business of 40 years, Dubai’s Mostafawi Carpets and Curtains. His sons call him the boss, the patriarch, and a disciplinarian. Mostafawi would have it no other way. He still gets up at the crack of dawn and makes sure he’s in his office by midmorning, sitting at his desk, watching everyone intently. Even his sons. “What does it feel like to be 87?” I ask. He looks at me with a twinkle in the eye and says, “It’s beyond my imagination.” “Just like Dubai, you see. The city’s grown beyond what we could ever imagine. This place has given me and my family all I could ever ask for. But the speed at which the country grows leaves me awestruck. If you go away for six months and you come back, it will be a new place altogether.”
Starting from humble beginnings, Mostafawi’s journey to being the “king of the floor” wasn’t without its fair share of commitment and hard work. Growing up, he divided his time between the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Just after the Second World War in 1946, he started a general trading business in Deira. Life was simple, but as the business grew there came the opportunity to offer high-quality branded products to people in the city. ‘From shoes and garments to textiles, we traded in everything in the 1960s and became distributors for brands such as Wrangler, Clarks, Swiss Army Knife, among many others. It was a virgin market and there was a huge opportunity to go ahead, full steam. Those were the toughest, but most fruitful years of my life.’
The idea to focus on carpets and curtains came about in the 70s. ‘In 1977 we started Mostafawi Carpets and Curtains and by the mid-80s we were a household name in flooring in Dubai. The city was opening up and people were moving in with new jobs and setting up businesses. Houses were being built – villas, townhouses, and apartments. Opportunities were enormous,’ says Mostafa. Besides residences, orders also poured in from the commercial and hospitality sectors.
‘We’ve delivered carpets to the Burj Al Arab, and later to the Burj Khalifa, to royal palaces and libraries. We’ve carpeted His Highness Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance’s palace and for many other royal palaces as well. Our carpets are all over the UAE.’
The demand for carpets in the country helped Mostafa grow his business in a short time. He started with importing carpets from the US but after a while set up his niche in the area of hand-tufted carpets. ‘I was able to see the market for such carpets because there were hardly any factories that produced hand-tufted carpets locally. Most of these carpets were brought from the Philippines, China and Thailand.’ The company now has its own hand-tufted carpet factory. The raw material is 100 per cent pure New Zealand wool and the company has a team of designers who take care of the exquisite designs, influenced by the cultural preferences of clients. ‘I started with 40-50 people. Now I have more than 300 people in the company,’ says Mostafa.
In the UAE, the largest hand-tufted carpet created by Mostafawi Carpets, is a single 570 square metre piece found
in a library in Abu Dhabi. “But our largest carpet to date was made for a Russian client – 600 square metres [20m x 30m] and shipped to Russia,’ says Mostafa.
‘Making a hand-tufted carpet is a labour-intensive process,’ he explains. ‘After we source the raw material, which we do from New Zealand, it needs to be pre-dyed either in the source country or any other third country. We cannot do it in the UAE as we use desalinated water. Once the yarn arrives in our factory, the carpet is first woven on a primary backing. The latex holds the yarn to the primary backing and we add a secondary backing for strength and durability. After that it goes for shearing and carving.’ A special tufting gun is used to shoot 600,000-700,000 tufts of yarn into one square metre of carpet.
So how many days does it take to complete a handtufted carpet? “It depends on how intricate the product is. But on an average, a person working for eight hours a day can make one square metre of hand-tufted carpet,’ says Mostafa. The company today produces around 1,000 carpets a year, with an average starting price of Dh700 per square metre.
Besides the natural wool hand-tufted carpets, there is also a demand for synthetic fibres such as nylon and acrylic that are imported from Europe and the US. But as Mostafa explains, ‘In Dubai, wool carpets do well as they keep your home warm in winter and cool in summer.’
Talking about the difference between a hand-tufted carpet and a synthetic one, Mostafa is quick to point out that while a synthetic carpet can last for 15 to 20 years, a hand-tufted one will be good for 7 to 10 years. ‘They have a very special make, and are only meant for the most important areas of the house like the living space, bedrooms, or the majlis, even hotel lobbies. They are meant for important guests. A synthetic carpet can be used anywhere. It can last in a zoo with the hippos and
‘A synthetic carpet can be used anywhere. It can last in a zoo with the hippos and elephants walking over it. It can endure a lot of wear and tear’
elephants walking over it. It can endure a lot of wear and tear.’
Mostafa has five sons and three daughters. His sons, Abu Talib, Yousuf, Ismail, Hussam and Abdul Rahim help him run the business that has grown manifold; the family lives together in Al Mankhool. ‘My life has always been very simple. I’ve always lived the way I wanted to. I’ve never stopped at anything, and if there’s a problem I try and overcome it. It’s easier said than done but that’s the only way to go ahead in life. The only person I share everything with is my wife Fatima. It’s a partnership of 60 years and we go in life hand-in-hand,’ says Mostafa fondly.
He confesses to eating only at home, simple meals of greens and fish. And he has a weakness for tea and books. ‘I have a well-stocked library and I must read before going to bed. Every night, it’s almost ritualistic for the book to fall flat on my face. It means I am finally asleep.’ The octogenarian treasures Arab values and even at his age, finds ways in which his company can develop service standards.
‘As a father I was a real disciplinarian. I never had much time for my boys as I was always working. Our lives revolved around our carpets. There was no holiday for us. The only thing my children looked forward to was a visit to the airport. The high point in our lives was to go there and see the planes flying in and out. Much later we went to the Al Mushrif Park on Fridays, but it was nothing beyond that. There were lot of rules in the family and I think that helped to shape my children well.’
Talking about changing trends, Mostafa says, ‘The demand for carpets has certainly gone down. People don’t prefer to have their homes carpeted these days. The new residences don’t have them. Families tend to believe that carpets are one of the causes for dust allergy, which is a complete misconception. The only way to escape the dust in the air is to have a carpet that traps the dust particles. Without a carpet you have no idea the amount of airborne dust that ends up in your lungs. Many of the allergies can be avoided if you have a carpet at home and change it every five years.’
But despite changing market conditions, it seems it is business as usual at the Mostafawi showroom near Al Fahidi. Rolls of hand-tufted carpets in spectacular colours and intricate patterns are neatly arranged along the walls or beautifully spread out in the huge chambers. The phones ring and it’s the beginning of another busy day. Abdul Rahim Mostafawi sits in his chair, giving the final nod to all business discussions, while his sons fuss about him.
It’s been a long day’s journey, but as the boss puts it, not yet time to call it a day.