He wanted to ensure the comfort of his parents, every genuine facility to his family and a helping hand to his own people. This is what success means to Faisal Hameed for whom J&K Bank has been the most helpful companion through out the journey thus far. Mir Javeed reports.
He doesn’t play any sport but his figure is akin to that of a sportsman. He remains outside field but always up-to-date with the tools of the game. Whatever the results of the game, he is always the winner. And that is what makes him more than a mere sportsman. Faisal Hameed (40) is a successful sports businessman.
Faisal, a Dalgate resident, is the proprietor of OLYMPIC SPORTS CENTER, near Gogji Bagh. Though he graduated in arts, the seeds of his interest lay in his childhood passion for business. Even during the completion of his graduation he arranged some resources from family and acquired a shop from Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) near Gogji Bagh in 1989.
He would attend his college regularly besides managing his shop where he would put up tools and gears of cricket and badminton for sale.
His relationship with J&K Bank began soon after he opened a current account with J&K Bank’s Hari Singh High Street branch in 1991. Few months later as he could feel need for more finances, Faisal went to the branch and asked for the credit facilities available with the bank.
He discussed his business plan with the branch head and consequently availed Cash-Credit facility of Rs 75000 from the branch. For the next few years he managed to run his sports retail outlet profitably.
It was only after 1995 that he started to look out for small supply orders from the government. But the government supply line would require huge inventory stock and a strong capital cushion, as it was completely a credit-based business. J&K Bank again came to his rescue and enhanced his finances according to his market needs. And his business of retail and bulk supplies flourished thereafter.
But Faisal has a keen sense of changing market trends in and around J&K. In 2000 he diversified into fitness equipment like exercise cycles, joggers and gyms etc that became and still is a fad among not only young but older generations of health-conscious people.
Having an exclusive fitness equipment showroom now, he supplies all kinds of sports and other fitness equipment to the departments of state government, schools, colleges, universities and other private organizations across the state. That’s what makes Olympic Sports Center a familiar name not only in the players’ circles but government departments and other organizations.
Currently, he efficiently utilizes the bank finances to the tune of Rs 20 lacs availed from Jawahar Nagar branch of J&K Bank. His monthly sales have grown exponentially from Rs 1200 per month in early 90’s to about Rs 3 lacs every month now. And from government segment, he receives the monthly sales of Rs 7 to Rs 8 lacs.
His annual turnover for the last financial year was 1.65 crores. His sales force comprised of four young and promising boys.
Not long ago in 2004-05 he initiated a sale of sports souvenir/memento. With the increasing sports fever in the valley these form a major part of the bulk orders he gets from the departments, organizations or individuals. He also intends to import a brass-hatching machine for printing these mementos/souvenirs so that he meets the increasing number of orders at short notice.
The rise in the economic profile of Faisal’s business has proportionately informed and influenced his priorities at home. Good education for his children tops his priority list.
Furqan, his little son studies in class one at Delhi Public School while as Sadia his daughter reads in 6th standard in Mallinson Girls School. He wears himself out so that he can provide them with the best affordable education in the distinguished institutions of learning in the world.
Meanwhile, he encouraged and helped his younger brother Imran Hameed to go for higher studies to the United States of America. He takes pride in saying that his younger brother is a US-based software engineer.
When he started his business he only things in his mind. He wanted to ensure the comfort of his parents, every genuine facility to his family and a helping hand to his own people. This is how he defines success.
“All of this has become possible by the grace of Almighty and the unfailing finances from J&K Bank, which kept boosting my confidence and consequently my business. J&K Bank has really been a motherly institution for me from a business-boy once to a businessman now”, summed up Faisal Hameed.
For him, the image and recognition of being a good and honest businessman in the fraternity is the best souvenir one can ever earn. That was his coveted Olympic prize and he has already got it.
