In 1993, a 36-year-old spice trader from Kozhikode walked into a 200-square-foot shop and opened it as a jewellery store. He had raised ₹50 lakh by selling personal assets and convincing seven relatives to invest. He had no background in jewellery. What he had was an observation: India's gold market was fragmented, unorganised, and rife with distrust. Customers had no way to verify the purity of the gold they were buying. He decided to fix that.
That man was M.P. Ahammed - Mohammed Ahammed Puliyath, born on November 1, 1957, in Kozhikode, Kerala. Starting his entrepreneurial journey at 17 in agro-products, he later expanded into spice trading. On September 17, 1993, he opened a 200 sq ft jewellery shop in Kozhikode, investing his remaining capital into the venture. He named it Malabar Gold, drawing inspiration from the Malabar Coast.
The Spice Trader Who Saw Gold
Born into a family of merchants, Ahammed began by trading cardamom, pepper, and coconut to retailers of Kozhikode. He soon realised that the trading business would not become big. He began watching the jewellery market closely. What he saw troubled him: the market was dominated by 24-carat gold that made manufacturing expensive, with no standardised quality check. Customers were paying premium prices for gold of uncertain purity. Retailers were operating on trust built over generations - or exploiting the absence of it.
Ahammed spotted both the gap and the solution. He targeted Malayali expatriates in the Middle East, formed partnerships with local businessmen and offered up to 15% interest on debentures, which could later be converted into shares once the business became profitable. This innovative strategy paid off, and the business rapidly grew, achieving ₹16 crore in revenue in no time.
The Purity Revolution: 916 Gold and BIS Hallmarking
The first breakthrough came in 1999, when Ahammed made a decision that would reshape Kerala's jewellery industry. He became the frontrunner in bringing BIS-hallmarked jewellery to Kerala. The 916-carat metre in gold created a niche and since then, there has been no looking back for the brand.
This was not merely a quality initiative - it was a trust revolution. For the first time, customers could walk into a Malabar showroom and know with certainty what they were buying. The brand backed this up with lifetime maintenance, a 100% gold-value buyback guarantee, and complimentary jewellery insurance. These were industry firsts in India at the time.
"We introduced BIS hallmarking to Kerala in 1999. Transparency and customer trust have been our growth pillars - and they still are."
- M.P. Ahammed, Founder & Chairman, Malabar Gold & Diamonds
Beyond Jewellery: The Malabar Group
Ahammed never positioned himself as a jeweller alone. The Malabar Group has diversified into real estate - including the Mall of Travancore, India's first green mall - household appliances through a partnership with Eham Digitals, and sustainable farming through Green Thumb. The Malabar Charitable Trust, established in 1999, now channels 5% of net profits into social welfare, investing over ₹263 crore in programmes including a Hunger-Free World project serving 70,000 meals daily, a national scholarship programme supporting 21,000 girl students annually, and a housing programme that has built over 20,000 homes.
The Leadership Behind the Growth
While M.P. Ahammed remains the undisputed architect and chairman, the company's global scale demanded a professional leadership layer. Key figures include Abdul Salam K.P., Vice-Chairman of Malabar Group, and Shamlal Ahamed, Managing Director of International Operations. The group is also backed by Alimaqsood Rahman as Group CEO for its wider digital and international operations. Each leader has driven a distinct phase of the company's growth - from regional dominance to global luxury positioning.
What's Next: IPO, 15 Countries, and World No.1
Ahammed envisions Malabar Gold & Diamonds becoming the world's top jewellery retailer by 2030. The company plans an IPO between 2027 and 2028 and aims to launch 90 new stores - 60 in India and 30 overseas. Expansion into lab-grown diamonds, alongside traditional natural diamond lines, reflects his vision for responsible innovation and sustainable luxury.
The numbers already make the ambition seem less like vision and more like logistics. From ₹5 million in revenue in 1993 to ₹62,000 crore in FY 2024-25, the compound story of Malabar Gold is ultimately a story about one thing: the willingness of a spice trader to question why the jewellery market had to work the way it always had - and the three decades of relentless execution it took to prove the answer.
Click it and Unblock the Notifications
Sign in with Google