Abdullah Kamani Family Sold Towels in 1960s Turned In To Fashion Empire in UK

The family originated in Gujarat, India, where Abdullah Kamani went to school with Mahatma Gandhi. Abdullah moved the family to Kenya, where many Indian families had prospered under the British Empire.

Abdullah Kamani Family Sold Towels in 1960s Turned In To Fashion Empire in UK
Abdullah Kamani Family Sold Towels in 1960s Turned In To Fashion Empire in UK

Abdullah Kamani emigrated from Kenya to the United Kingdom in the 1960s. They settled in Manchester, they were 18 members of family living in house in Chorlton including brothers, cousins, children and grandchildren.

Abdullah sold handbags, towels on a market stall to feed his family. Mahmud Kamani was born there in 1964, but four years later the Kamanis were forced to flee to Britain by increasing unrest and draconian employment laws that favoured native Kenyans.

Later family investing in property and founded wholesale textile business Pinstripe, where Mahmud worked, using family connections in India to source garments. Abdullah Kamani who is in his 80s still continued to show up at work every day.

In 2006, Mahmud Kamani decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and start, along with his partner Carol Kane, his own fashion company: Boohoo. Mahmud Kamani turned a Manchester market stall into the fashion mega brand BooHoo.com.

In 2014,

the company recorded a revenue of 110 million pounds (143 million dollars) and made a profit of 11 million pounds (14.3 million dollars), Boohoo went public.

In April 2017, Boohoo announced that its profits had almost doubled to £31 million on sales up by 51% to almost £300 million. When the company was floated on the stock market in 2014, it was valued at £560m, and is worth about £2 billion as of April 2017.

Boohoo uploads as many as 120 new pieces to their site every day and on average they sell 50 dresses per minute

The tiny team moved their products from factory to website at lightning fast speed, and just 11 years later the business is worth is now worth a whopping £3.2billion.

Nowadays, Mahmud, his wife Aisha and his three sons Umar, Adam and Samir fly by private jet, holiday in the wealthiest places in the world and own a fleet of expensive cars between them.

Mahmud drives a Rolls Royce Phantom worth £350,000 and enjoys a lavish lifestyle of jet-setting, sports cars and designer clothes.

Adam and Samir both work for the family business. Umar, however, branched out on his own and started the hugely successful Pretty Little Thing.com, which has A-list celebrity sponsors like Kylie Jenner and also signed Love Islander Molly-Mae for a £500million deal.