Perfumery family caters to sophisticated noses

More than a quarter of a century ago, Fakruddin Ajmal left India and landed in Dubai to set up his company's overseas office. The times were harsh, but he stuck on and today Ajmal Perfumes is a name to reckon with in the perfumery business. How did the family do it? Friday meets the perfumers...

Two men were in a forest when a tiger suddenly started chasing them. One man immediately began to remove his shoes so he could run faster when the other asked him why he was even bothering to run when their chances seemed slim. The swift reply was, "To survive, all I have to do is run ahead of you.''

Amiruddin Ajmal, head of the 50-year-old Ajmal Perfumes, narrates this story with a laugh. Clad in a crisply-starched kurta, Amiruddin, the eldest of the Ajmal family is seated in his very functional Hamarain Centre office in Dubai, explaining what it takes to stay ahead of the competition.

"There's no single formula (for success). And it works differently for each person,'' states this quintessential Indian businessman and trader, attempting to spell out the company's success formula.

His brother, Fakruddin Ajmal, the first in the family to arrive in the UAE from Bombay to open the company's overseas office here, chips in, "All we did is business. We've been in Dubai for a quarter of a century, but not many have seen or known us. Till now, we've steered clear of the limelight.'' The family may have, but not their perfumes.

Much of this perfume company's success, whose fortunes were tied to the bark of a rapidly-depleting and a slow-to-mature tree called agarwood, has come from, to use a perfumery catchphrase, catching the note at its peak.

Taking the "right approach at the right time'' was one golden rule, says Amiruddin. He provides an example: In the late '70s, French fragrances dominated the perfume market. Realising that their target was largely the over-40-year group, and keen to widen their market, the Ajmals decided on a new business strategy. They decided to introduce an "Oriental perfume spray'' to attract the younger age group.

The move was a departure from the traditional image of Ajmal used by veiled and hennaed women. "We went ahead despite advise from some people. Our hunch was too strong,'' Amiruddin recounts.

From a small shed in Dubai, armed with a rudimentary stirrer and drum, a fragrant fusion of natural oils was created. The fantastic potion was called "Mukhallat'' (Arabic for concoction) spray and the mesmeric fragrance of Dahan-Al-Oud wafted into the market in the mid-'80s.

The rest as they say, is history. The success story of an Oriental fragrant-oil manufacturer from Assam, India, with a modern tweak to ancient aromas was to go down in the success annals of the perfumery business.

Today, the 50-odd Ajmal products jostle for space with leading European brands in perfume stores. This is a company which commands – and gets – Dh2,300 for a 12-ml bottle of its Dahan-Al-Oud Moattaq perfume. This is also the company which boasts a sophisticated $400,000 R&D division which is authorised to issue quality certificates on behalf of the Saudi Arabia Standardisation Organisation (SASO).

This is also the company which strongly believes in the vision of its founder, agar tycoon Ajmal Ali, who never sacrificed quality at any cost. The pioneer in the family, Fakhruddin, recalls an incident when this basic Ajmal aphorism slipped his mind: "Many years ago, the "Gharu Oil'' supplied to a top Dubai family was returned on the grounds that the fragrance was not up to the mark. I was young and not very experienced in the business. I did not know what the problem really was and informed my father about the incident. Maybe I doubted its quality too,'' he says.