Family pay tribute to determined businessman who lit up the city
THE family of a well-known Derby businessman have paid tribute to his steely determination after his death in June.
Dayal Oberoi died aged 83 on June 3, 2022, after running his business, Oberoi Brothers Lighting Ltd, for more than 50 years.
Mr Oberoi opened his warehouse and showroom in Humbleton Drive, Mackworth, in 1974, where it has been ever since. He was still waking up at 6am, driving himself to work and working 10 hours a day in the final weeks of his life, before he died following complications from catching Covid in March this year.
Now his son, Deven, and daughter-in-law, Kavita, who lovingly called her father-in-law “dad”, have paid tribute to him.
They said Mr Oberoi, a father of two, was not fazed by being one of the few prominent Asian businessmen in Derby at the time, such was his style.
Deven, 55, said: “He wanted to break all the rules. It was not in his style to follow the herd. He was a true entrepreneur, it was his way or the highway and he wouldn’t listen to anyone.
“The business was his life, it was his hobby, it was his life, especially as he didn’t have my mum around. He just loved working on the business. He had a very strong personality and was very determined. He wasn’t scared of anything or anyone.
“In all the years I knew him, I never saw him worried, he was never worried or scared of anything. He took everything in his stride, and he loved Derby.”
Born in Chakwal, which at the time was part of India but is now in Pakistan, Mr Oberoi first came to the UK in the early 1960s and began working in the railway industry in Thornaby, near Middlesbrough.
He travelled back to Delhi to marry his wife, Sneh Lata Oberoi, in 1965 before he returned to England, where he was eventually joined by his three brothers – Yog, Prakash and Chander Oberoi.
When Chander got married in 1969 to a woman who came from a family which sold lights, Dayal was inspired to do something similar.
He and his brothers founded Oberoi Brothers Lighting Ltd, but Dayal retained ownership of the business when he moved to Derby to study accountancy at the city’s university in the late 1960s with Yog, living in High Street in Normanton and working from a terraced house in Shaftesbury Street.
Deven recalls one memory of his father, which involved him sitting in a room with his brothers, discussing what they wanted to be when they were older. When Yog said he wanted to be an accountant, Dayal said “I want to be the businessman who employs the accountant”.
In the early days, he would travel to various lighting stores on public transport to sell lamps to individual retailers, before eventually buying 30 Humbleton Drive in Mackworth as a storage space for his products in 1974.
Shortly afterwards, the former Lipton’s supermarket at 29 Humbleton Drive went up for sale, and Mr Oberoi bought the second property, where the business remains today following several extensions.
Deven, one of Mr Oberoi’s two children, remembers that critics said the business would be gone in 18 months but 50 years later the site – which Mr Oberoi claimed housed the largest number of lights under one roof – is still there, although it has remained closed since his death.
In the 1980s, Mr Oberoi began to strike partnerships with the big furniture sellers of the day, including Times Furnishings, Queensway, Maples Furnishings and Waring and Gillow.
He would provide lamps to be used in furniture displays, which could see him ship 1,000 lamps at a time as one buyer would represent hundreds of furniture stores up and down the country.
Throughout the growth of the business, he was supported by his wife, who sadly died from breast cancer in 1993. Deven began working for the business in 1990, three years before he married Kavita, herself an entrepreneur.
Mr Oberoi lived with Kavita, Deven and their two daughters in Hazelwood and Kavita recalls how he was always smartly dressed in a shirt and tie, and how his day always began at 6am with yoga and prayers. Mr Oberoi was a devout Hindu and donated funds for the establishment of a new Hindu temple in Derby.
Kavita, 52, said: “We had a special relationship. When he came home we would have several conversations during dinner. He was very particular about his food, his preference was a traditional Indian meal and the chapatis had to be made fresh when he was ready to sit down to eat.
“Our relationship became more father-daughter, and when I was running my businesses. I didn’t realise at the time but now I see that there were certain nuggets of advice that he would give me. I suppose he was trying to pass through his wisdom.
“He was very principled and very stern, what he said was gospel and you knew where the line was. He was very particular about everything and it was very much his way or the highway, but that’s a typical trait of an entrepreneur.
“In some ways we were very similar and I think that’s why we got on a lot. He was very driven.
“He was such a workaholic. He hated Sundays as he wanted to get back to work. Having the one day off used to drive him insane, but we did manage to get him to shut the shop and come on some holidays with us.
“The thought of it, and the grief we got afterwards because he was shutting the shop, was a lot. But we did manage to take him to Dubai, Japan, Abu Dhabi, Italy; we did manage to have some nice memories with him, but to get him to go on holiday was a nightmare.
“I remember his determination. One memory was when we were in Japan, and we had to go up a mountain and told him to sit where he was, but he said no, got his walking stick and got to the top.
“He never wanted to shut the shop. He always used to say, ‘what am I going to do if I shut this shop?’ He always used to say, an empty mind is a devil’s mind, he always wanted to keep active.”
Kavita and Deven said that the lighting showroom will be closed down following Mr Oberoi’s death, but the pair will be working with TV auctioneer Charles Hanson to help illuminate his memory and “switch on” a celebratory auction in October. Any remaining lights will be donated to charity.