Dr. Dhananjay Datar

Dr. Dhananjay Datar – Chairman & Managing Director, Al Adil Trading LLC, UAE, is popularly known as the ‘Masala King’ in Gulf countries. Dr. Datar is a prime example example of an entrepreneur who identified a gap in the market, and with the right implementation went on to create a successful business to great acclaim. Datar also happens to be a Doctor in Business Administration.

He started his business career in 1984 as an intern in a small grocery shop started in Dubai. He used to do sweeping, cleaning ,and carrying heavy bags initially and gradually learned the management of a shop under the wise tutelage of his father. With honesty, hard work ,and determination, he made a miracle to carve the world-famous business group ,Al Adil, out of his tiny shop. Today his group encompasses a chain of 50 spacious superstores spread across Gulf Countries, 2 spice factories ,and 2 flour mills equipped with modern technology and an import-export company. He has created employment for hundreds of Indian workers and gave them the opportunity to work abroad. The rulers of UAE felicitated Dhananjay with a prestigious award and the title Masala King in 2001 for his invaluable contribution to the business sector. Recently he has been ranked in 8th position among the top ten Indian billionaires in the GCC region, by the world-renowned media house Arabian Business and is also been ranked by 25th in top Indian business leaders by Forbes Middle East in the Arab world. Recognized as an ISO 22000, HACCP, GMP, GHP certified company in 2006 Al Adil Trading under the leadership of Dr. Dhananjay Datar has performed a key role in bringing more than 9000 Indian products to UAE. The group also produces more than 700 products within categories like readymade flours, spices, pickles, jams, Namkeen ,and instants, under its own brand ‘Peacock’ and has its own manufacturing units in Al Quoz Industrial Area & Dubai Investment Park. For the last 37 years, He is serving the Indian community from the Gulf region with authentic, hygienic ,and secure Indian foodstuff. His groups Indian arm, Masala King Exports (India) Pvt. Ltd. is successfully operating from Mumbai. It is one of the leading exporters of quality branded Indian pulses, spices ,and other grocery items, as well as non-food items from the Indian sub-continent. Al Adil Group is in active expansion mode and increasing its outlets in other gulf countries. It has established special trade routes in the USA, Canada, Kenya, Switzerland, Italy, Eretria, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia ,and UAE. Apart from business, he is active in entre-preneurship development and business motivation among Indian youth. With a vision to inspire business aspirants and with a dream to create hundreds of Indian entrepreneurs from the lower middle-class, he gives guidance talks in various Indian cities at his own ex-pense. Also he has helped a number of local entrepreneurs from India in exporting their quality products to Gulf markets. Datar attributes his success to his father, the late Mhadhavrao Datar as well as the encour-agement and support of well-wishers and customers. Having started off with just three em-ployees, the group today employs thousands of people. He is providing direct and indirect employment to thousands of Indians and his contribution in enhancing the livelihood of In-dians needs to be appreciated. Because of Datar’s commitment to quality and value, Al Adil Trading has been able to retain the loyalty of his customers for decades. For Al Adil Trading’s frontman, the secret of success lays in total determination and dedica-tion towards his business. He feels that it does not matter whether the business is small or big, what is important is efficiently and effectively catering to customer satisfaction. His ad-vice to the entrepreneurs of the future is to have a dream and to work hard to pursue it. Dr. Datar’s innovative idea has enabled Al Adil to figure prominently in the books of history where it is registered in Limca book of Records and Guinness World Record for its midair Silver Jubilee celebrations. He smilingly tells “I wanted to celebrate Al Adil’s 25 years of cel-ebration in a lifetime experience in a unique style on board a Royal Jet Airways Boeing 737. On 22nd March 2009, with close business associates took off for a grand celebration at 40,000ft above sea level. I also gifted my wife, a bespoke edition customized Rolls Royce, which was specially made by Rolls Royce for her, at a whopping cost of Rs.8 crores (approx. USD 2 million). There are only 17 such Phantom editions in last 105 years, and this is the 18th special edition. It is actually the first Rolls Royce Phantom in Dubai.”

Awards received

Dr. Datar has been honoured with various international and national awards for his business excellence and quality of products. Recently he has been ranked in 8th position among the top ten Indian billionaires in the GCC region, by the world-renowned media house Arabian Business. Besides, he has been conferred with business awards from countries like UAE, USA, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland ,and Spain. In India he has been honoured with GMBF Business Excellence Award, Rashtriya Udyog Ratna Award, Quality Brand Award, Bharat Vikas Ratan Award ,and Best Indian Retailer Award.

He has also been ranked in 8th position among the top ten Indian billionaires in the GCC re-gion, by the world-renowned media house Arabian Business and he is also been ranked by 25th in top Indian business leaders by Forbes Middle East.

Contribution to social service

Apart from business, Dr. Datar has been acclaimed for his philanthropic work and contribution in social service. He has donated generously to orphanages, schools for underprivileged children ,and social welfare projects such as run by eminent social workers Sindhutai Sapkal and Dr. Vikas Amte. He has been honoured with a special award for his contribution in social entrepreneurship by Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Smruti Prathishthan. Recently Dr. Datar has extended his helping hand to the penniless Indians who were stranded in Dubai due to the pandemic and desperately waiting to return home. Dr. Datar offered great help by sponsoring their air travel, conducting free COVID-19 tests and distributing food packets to the needy. As of now, Dr. Datar has organised the travel of over 5,000 such people including jobless workers, pregnant women, children, students and travellers. He even made all-out efforts to free 700 detained Indian workers in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) Jeddah city and offer them food, medical help, and logistical support to return to their homeland. The work to help the stranded Indians to return safely to India will continue for the next couple of months so that more and more needy people get benefitted from the initiative. Dr. Datar proactively announced a total of Rs. 2 million as financial aid from his personal fund to the families of those who died in the Air India Express mishap at Kozhikode in August 2020.

The List of Awards

Promotion of Indian Culture in the Gulf

Dr. Datar is determined to promote and support Indian culture in the Gulf region. He sponsors various Indian cultural programs including dance, music, drama, festivals there and also encourages the artists. He had sponsored International Conference on Ayurved (2009) and Second Vishwa Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (2011) in Dubai.

Dr. Dhananjay Datar

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