Bhagwandas Bablani

Born in Nasarpur district of Sindh, Bhagwandas Bablani, a sindhi bhatia migrated to India during the partition. After spending a few years in Indore and parts of Gujarat, he migrated to Dubai in 1952 when he was around 20. At that time, Dubai was a small town, part of the Trucial states, base of the British Government. Bhagwan (as he was properly known as) worked with Jashanmal Department stores where only the elite or British soldiers shopped. That set the base for his popularity not only amongst the British officers but also the local families.

He went on to start his businesses in partnership with the Al Hathboor family,and created companies like Bablani Brothers, Bablani International, Bablani Electrical Trading Company, Al Hathboor Food stuff, Al Hathboor Martinizing, Al Jadeed Bakery, Dubai Automatic Bakery, Best Food Corporation, Al Hathboor Supermarkets, etc. He was one of the first few people to try different concepts in Dubai like 24 Hrs supermarket, selling bakery products in mobile vans, direct selling with Avon Cosmetics. He also was one of the first people to recognise Sheikh Zayed Road as a potential for development and secured land to build the first Safeway supermarkets in Dubai (today where Thunderdome stands). His out of the box thinking and reputation, attracted many UK and USA companies to appoint the Bablani Alhathboor group as exclusive distributors of their products like WD-40, Loctite, Safeway Inc., Avon Products, Inc., Coty Cosmetics, Thermos, SKF, NGK sparks, and Legrand amongst the 72 agencies in all.

A visionary, he migrated with his family to Canada in late 1980s.