Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Kerala's first multiplex all set to open

Kochi: Fifty-eight-year-old M.A.Mohammed, a Dubai-based Kerala businessman, is on a roll as the state's first multiplex is all set to open at his Oberon mall here.

The air-conditioned Oberon mall which opened last year in March is the state's biggest mall, which has a built up area of 3,50,000 sq ft. The four-theatre multiplex would be run by Mumbai based Cine Max, Mohammed told IANS.

'Everything is ready and it is now a matter of days before the state's first multiplex opens. This is located on the fourth floor of our mall and can seat 700,' said the soft spoken businessman.

His Oberon group is a closely held family business along with his three brothers and his two sons. The group is into agri-products, pharmaceuticals, furniture and a growing chain of restaurants in the state.

'A decade back along with my cousin V.A.Hassan, we launched the Flora Group of Hotels in Dubai and today we have four luxury hotels and two luxury hotel apartments in Dubai,' said Mohammed who is also the director of Flora.

Now often shuttling between Dubai and here, Mohammed's success saga began ever since he entered the family business of agro-commoditytrading, soon after he graduated in the early seventies. He then joined his father, M.K Abdullah, at Irinjalakuda near here.

Right now he is focusing on the luxury hotel Flora which will be ready in six month's and is located a stone's throw away from the Cochin International Airport.

' Our Oberon Group turnover has now crossed Rs.one billion and has been steadily growing. At the end of this fiscal too, we will grow by 15 percent. We are expanding Oberon Taste Buds, a chain of restaurants across the state. In three years time we will have 10 restaurants in the state. Our third restaurant is opening next month here,' said Mohammed.

His restaurant at his mall here is the biggest in the state and occupies an area of 13,000 sq.ft.

A devout Muslim, Mohammed is the Thiruvananthapuram District president of the Muslim Education Society and his next major project is one that has been his dream for long.

'We will soon start construction of a state of the art fully residential engineering college in Kerala. This will be for the non-resident Keralite population. It will have state of the art infrastructure and will be comparable to the best anywhere,' said Mohammed.

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