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PK Abdulla Koya: Stamping ‘Success’ in his Own Way

In Article
April 27, 2019

Almost all of them, aboard that ship sailing through the Arabian Sea in 1978 would have shared the same thoughts. The impending hunt for a job that the ‘Gulf’ reportedly offered aplenty.

The hopeful yet crestfallen eyes of the dearest ones they were leaving behind; the fear of living in an alien land they had heard about in the splendid stories of the Arabian Nights until then; the prayers that the mother sea wouldn’t unravel her mischievous face until they land on the sands on the other side. Abdulla Koya, who had just turned eighteen and grabbed a passport, had some more lingering thoughts.

He had to frequently check his pockets if the Kohl was still there, for that helped him darken the juvenile moustache to look more mature. Shouldering the hopes of a family that had lost their parents, he saw the challenges of life in the threatening waves that bombarded the swiveling vessel.

Over the next 40 years, Abdulla Koya would see tougher waves and sail bigger, turbulent oceans of life. As the Chairman and Managing Director of several enterprises spread across continents, providing employment to thousands of people, his hunger for success has not diminished at all. Sitting in the modest cabin in his office at Kozhikode, on a short visit after receiving the Garshom award for lifetime achievement in business from Japan, Abdulla Koya reiterates that his expedition is moving forward with the rapidly evolving business environment and keeping pace with the ever-changing technology.

Seek and You Shall Find
After a three-year stint doing several menial jobs in the UAE, Abdulla Koya visited his hometown. He knew he had to step up to do better things as the situation back home had only marginally improved. His everlasting keenness to learn and patience to listen helped him go back as a screen-printing expert and ‘Addprint’, his first establishment, was born soon in Abu Dhabi in 1981.

In an era when computer-aided design was not accessible to all, he was learning mathematics practically, geometry, and the use of pi for example, for setting shapes in the substrates. He often jokes that he was lucky that he didn’t learn them from text books.

Addprint opened a plethora of corporate contacts and for a man who knows how to value relationships, Abdulla Koya quickly established Addprint as the first preference of almost all its customers. This served as an inspiration for him to seek and find more.

He was the first one to enter and the last one to exit the industrial exhibitions anywhere around, an aspiration that would propel him to his maiden visit to China in the mid-80’s and Germany in the mid-90’s. Such expeditions helped him to meet people, of all kind and knowledge. This quest for novelty would help him in building his future initiatives.

Destiny always tests humans. The Gulf War broke out and many fled, apart from a few like Abdulla Koya. After sending his family home, Abdulla Koya fought the adversity with his close aide and emerged unscathed and even more successful.

Soon, screen-printing became common and Abdulla Koya’s search for another step-up ended in rubber stamps. Traditional rubber stamp industry employed outdated technology that made the entire process cumbersome, time consuming and produced enormous wastage. Abdulla Koya introduced ‘Sunstamper’ the first pre-inked stamp with Patented Japanese ink technology, that would change the industry forever. Soon, Addprint’s flash machines and holders, would further make the process faster and simpler. As an end user, you could receive the order of a stamp in less than five minutes.

A stamp maker could make the stamp in a minute. A tidy stamp that does not leak, holds clarity across thousands of imprinting, and does not require ink pads. Moreover, all the stamp maker requires is a computer, a printer, and the flash machine; an investment of a few thousand rupees.

Business not as usual
Yes, there are comparable stories of people whom emerged successful, fighting the odds and adversities. What makes Abdulla Koya unique is not his entrepreneurial skills or his hard-fought way to success. Rather it’s his philosophy that stands out. For Abdulla Koya, business is not an autocratic affair of a helmsman.

Instead he models himself as the patriarch of an extended family, from dealers to the stamp makers at the end of the supply chain and interestingly, he considers the duplicates of his own brand as a part of that extended family, even though they take away his share of profit. For him, the satisfaction of lighting the lamps of the families of more than 25,000 people through direct employment in India outweighs the pride of his personal voyage of all these years.

Perhaps, it is expected from the man who still remembers and knows the whereabouts of each and every one of the group of 14 men that sailed together in their maiden trip; who instead of stamping out a failed competitor during his growing up made them his partnership dealers; who recall the contributions of even petty incidents of luck during this journey. An out-and-out family man, he values relationships more than anything else.

Onwards and upwards
With the recent founding of Meltrax Electromechanical and Communication systems, which is a major supplier of electrical and telecommunication equipment to many countries, Abdulla Koya once again showed his acumen in finding new opportunities. In addition to the Garshom International Award, Abdulla Koya is the recipient of Sheikh Zayed International Excellence award, Asianet Global Business Excellence award and many more.

Budding entrepreneurs and aspirants often visit him for ideas and opinions. The biggest advice that he gives is his ever-pleasant demeanor; along with an important reminder – business is neither a way to escape from working, nor is it a quick way to make money. The best way to succeed in business is to first discover oneself. Abdulla Koya is married to Nazeema and is blessed with four children – Noora, Majidha, Ahamed Zayed, and Shymah.