Micky Jagtiani.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The Landmark Group announced the death of its billionaire founder, Mukesh “Micky” Jagtiani, on Friday morning in Dubai. Mickey was the driving force behind the journey of growth and prosperity that the Landmark Group has embarked on in the region since its establishment in the Kingdom of Bahrain in 1973.

His innovative vision contributed to making the Landmark Group one of the most important brands in the regional retail and hospitality sectors. Today, it has more than 2,200 stores in 21 countries across the Middle East, Africa, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

Mickey is known for his exceptional leadership and unwavering approach that focuses on serving customers in the best possible way, along with his deep understanding of the local and regional markets, and his philanthropic work that touched the lives of many people, and his strategic foresight is a solid legacy to lead the group that originated as a family business to become today one of the most prominent commercial establishments in the region.

His family members — his wife Renuka along with his children Aarti and Savitar, Nisha and Kabir, Rahul and his grandchildren Samar, Nikhil, Johan and Aaliya — and the members of the Landmark Group are always proud of Mickey's achievements and good memories.

He left behind an extended legacy of friendships, partnerships and connections with everyone he worked with.

Despite its affliction, the Landmark family affirms its commitment to continuing the journey of growth and prosperity and ensuring continued success as its founder has always sought.

His career

Jagtiani graduated in his working life to become, after a journey of struggle, one of the billionaires of the financial and business capital in the Middle East, Dubai, and his wealth is estimated at more than $3.3 billion.

After a period of working in Britain, Jagtiani thought of going to Bahrain, specifically in 1973, to start a new chapter in his life, to open a store specialized in selling children's toys, to be the first branch of his group, Landmark.

Things in Bahrain did not go as Jagtiani had imagined, and he faced many financial and administrative difficulties, and in the end, after patience, he managed to achieve success and earn a lot of money.

After he succeeded in his first Gulf stations and started establishing new brands that varied between fashion, electronics, furniture, health clinics and hotels, he later became one of the world's wealthiest.

He set a goal for him to expand to increase the volume of the group’s operations to $5.2 billion and expand its stores to 1,200 by 2015.

From here, Landmark embarked on the path of growth to become a global group in the world of retail in the Gulf countries, the Emirates and Dubai in particular, Jordan, Egypt and India.

It falls under a number of internationally known brands, including Home Center, Centrepoint, Baby Shop, Shoe Mart, Splash, Lifestyle, Beauty Bay, Q Home Decor, Max, Shoe Express, E-Max, and many branches of international brands such as New Look, Aftershock, Cotton and more.