Entrepreneur has grand designs (From Asian Image)

Entrepreneur has grand designs

4:43pm Friday 27th January 2012 in News By Asian Image reporter

Firdaus Nagree is a entrepreneur with an overriding creative streak.

A degree in Management Sciences from UMIST wouldn’t normally lead you into the furniture and interiors business, but in Firdaus’s case, it was a natural progression.

Furniture Craft International was started by his father Faiz Nagree, in 1984, and although Firdaus never thought he would see the day when the joined the business, here he is as the owner, and loving every minute of it.

In fact, Firdaus has grown the business from a small furniture retail company employing four people in 2005 when he took over, to a design led establishment, employing over 30 people, and seeing a huge expansion during a period when most other companies were either down-sizing or closing down altogether.

Today fci carries out between 40 and 50 large projects a year, and over 100 small to medium sized projects, and their hotel and contract arm has been solidly expanding to take in work in Africa and India as well.

Firdaus attributes his success to the fact that the business allows him to indulge both his business interests as well as his creative side. “Getting involved with furniture and interiors was a perfect blend of trading and creative skills, and has allowed me to experiment with other business ideas and grow our portfolio of businesses.”

In fact exploring new ideas and business ventures is something of a passion with Firdaus.

He currently runs an events business, ‘Cavendish Banqueting’, which he started in 2008, and which has grown to a point where they are in search of new and bigger premises, and will launch its catering arm in 2012.

Alongside this is his digital media agency business, ‘Serious eMedia’, which he set up in 2009.

While building up this impressive list of companies, he has also found the time to marry his sweet-heart from university and they have a young son, Fahris.