In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices: Lal Arakulath, Kreol Group : Moodie Davitt Report

There’s something that’s goin’ round, that’s shutting our borders down
It’s a bad time for our sick and our old
CNN’s nightly lullaby, tells of hundreds more that’ve died
I shut off the TV and think all alone, how long can this go on? – Jeff Orson, Pray

Welcome to In Crisis – Travel Retail Voices, our new podcast series in which we speak to travel retail executives around the world to see how they and their businesses are coping with the COVID-19 crisis.

Today’s episode features Lal Arakulath CEO of Kreol Group, a Dubai-based business that operates travel retail distribution in the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East and Africa as well as food products, apparel and footwear across Arabian Gulf domestic markets. One of the group’s companies is Alpha Kreol India, a joint venture with Dufry, which has a management contract with Cochin Duty Free in Lal’s native Kerala.

Lal, as he is universally known, is a self-made man, who came to Dubai from his native India in the late 1970s and worked his way up from the most menial of jobs to eventually set up his own business headquartered in Dubai. His subsequent great success is an inspirational tale of entrepreneurealism.

Martin Moodie caught up with Lal at the weekend by telephone in Dubai where he’s in lockdown like everyone in the emirate.