When a 22-year-old man from Vadakkekad in Kerala's Thrissur district stepped onto a creaking wooden dhow in 1967 — without a passport, without money, and without any certainty of where the winds would carry him — he could not have imagined that the journey would shape one of the UAE’s most respected business success stories.
Today, nearly six decades later, MV Kunhu Mohamed still remembers that voyage with the clarity of a man who built his life from the sea upward.
Kunhu Mohamed, now 79, left his hometown of Vadakkekad armed only with faith. The dhow Khwaja Moideen took forty days to reach the shores near Dibba Al Baya in Oman. Once the vessel anchored offshore, he jumped into the water, swam ashore with nothing but a soaked lungi and shirt, and wrung them dry before walking into the unknown.
In Sharjah, he stayed with a friend working at a local grocery and took up his first job as an assistant to a plumber. The pay was 5 Qatar Dubai Rial a day, but his sweating palms made it impossible to hold the tools. “After a week, he told me to take a few days off. I didn’t realise that meant I was fired,” he laughs. Yet he received 100 Qatar Dubai Rial — his first salary in the then Trucial States.
He tried every job that came his way: weaving fishing baskets, milking cows, cleaning utensils. His sincerity often turned chance into opportunity. Once, while washing utensils, he noticed his employer’s car was dirty. He cleaned it, polished it, and lit incense inside. Impressed, the employer raised his pay by another 100 Qatar Dubai Riyal — and added car-washing to his duties.
Kunhu Mohamed’s life changed when a friend introduced him to Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, then ruler of Ras Al Khaimah. He joined the Sheikh’s household as a driver. “I was scared when I first saw the Mercedes, but I put it in reverse slowly, and that’s how I learned,” he told a Khaleej Times reporter.
For four years he worked with the royal family, earning their trust and learning responsibility. Alongside, he began selling vegetables from the Sheikh’s farm. His honesty in handling accounts opened the door to small-scale trading — the foundation of the business he would eventually build.
In 1972, he registered his own company, Jaleel Traders — named after his younger brother. With encouragement from the Sheikh, he bought his first goods vehicle and began expanding his operations across markets in Al Ras, Hamriya, and Awir.
From a single shop, Jaleel Traders grew into Jaleel Holdings, now a leading FMCG and fresh-produce distributor supplying retailers, hotels, and restaurants across the Gulf. The group today employs more than 1,700 people.
But the growth was far from linear. He faced setbacks, including a major financial loss in Hamriya that forced him to sell family property back home to rebuild. “Failure never scared me. It reminded me how far I had come,” he said.
For Kunhu Mohamed, business has always been rooted in trust. He is known for asking after the well-being of his workers and insists on one non-negotiable rule: salaries must never be delayed. “The Prophet Mohammed said: ‘Give the worker his wage before his sweat dries.’ I have lived by that.”
Two of his sons — Sameer and Abdul Gafoor — now manage operations full-time, while his third son, Dr Zakir, is a consultant surgeon and regional medical director at NMC Healthcare. All three serve on the board.
Even today, he visits the office daily, “not to work,” he smiles, “but to meet my people.” His time is split between Dubai and Kerala, where he spends two months each. His day begins with yoga and ends with quiet reflection — often with memories of that first sea crossing.
“When I see the Arabian Sea, I remember the day I dived in with just one pair of clothes,” he says. “Everything after that was destiny.”
