The Great Gambler

Bulked with money, Nitin started his independent foray into business with imitation jewellery, handpicked from places like Taiwan and Japan, enjoying patronage amongst the citizens of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in multitudes. There were some kinks in business; after all, he was still an amateur. But margins were good, the business thrived, and the future did not pose a spot of worry. Having one hell of a beginner’s luck, his business kept expanding from a single to five stores in the first year itself. His uncle was infinitely proud, bragging about his nephew’s growth to the senior directors at his firm.

And then, it was over as quickly as it had begun.

The 1990 Kuwait War took lives and livelihoods, and fledgling businesses folded under duress. Profits were destroyed, and Nitin lost the initial investment as well. “Business collapsed, and one by one, I started shutting down shops. As quickly as I had grown, I was folding up faster than that,” he recalls. For a minute, it all seemed non-existent.

Humbled, he returned to his uncle, but not empty-handed; he had something new brewing. His uncle’s defunct supermarket provided the stage for this next venture, inspired by Mumbai’s bustling Fashion Street, where high-end fashion surplus found their way for dirt cheap prices, which brand enthusiasts snapped up readily. Nitin rebranded this modest idea, designed like a warehouse, the idea becoming its namesake. Essentially an outlet mall before the concept became commonplace, his venture possessed his signature gusto, as he travelled to India, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines, knocking on factory doors, hunting for quality products, buying them way under the sticker price, and selling it at handsome margins. It was a gamble that paid off, and his uncle’s forgotten store saw heyday again.