The sire of the Tappoo business empire, Tappoo Kanji passed away peacefully in his sleep on Sunday.
The funeral for Tappoo Bhai, as he was fondly known, was today (Tuesday).
The Tappoo Group, an integral part of the business environment in Fiji, is the result of Tappoo Bhai’s dedication to truth and compassion. Having written several pieces on his life, I came know a lot about the grit of this person as he made a life for himself and his family in Fiji in the 1930s and 40s.
Starting as a gold jeweller, Tappoo Bhai went on to peddling goods on a bicycle in the Sigatoka Valley area. He built up his small business from there, starting with a general goods shop, to put together a commercial enterprise that has been praised for its dedication to the country.
Tappoo Bhai is the epitome of the man who made good through sheer hard work and determination. His sons have always said that their father showed them the way to do business: with rancour, without aggression and with the common man always in the fore-front of their mind.
A deeply spiritual man, Tappoo Bhai was an ardent follower of Mahatma. His decisions were bound by “dharma”, something he passed on to his children.
When Tappoo Bhai established his small goldsmith business, handcrafting small pieces of jewellery himself in Sigatoka in 1941, he laid the foundations of a business that, within a generation, is one of the largest in Fiji.
Today the Tappoo commercial entity is into retailing, duty-free, wholesaling, hospitality and much more – one of the biggest business ventures in the islands.
Kanti Tappoo, the eldest, leads the business as its chairman, while Vinod, Mahendra, Kamlesh, Suresh, Yogesh and Madhu (CEO) run the day-to-day affairs. Their sons are also part of the business holding, with the exception of Sumeet Tappoo who is a successful singer in Bollywood.
The Tappoo Group has earned a name for itself as a company dedicated to nation-building through commercial pursuit and parity.
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The Group employs over a 1000 staff, with several hundred others employed by its subsidiaries. It has an unmatched number of long service awards among its staff
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The Tappoo Family Charitable Trust makes large donations for education and social works. It was set up as part of the 65th anniversary of the Group in 2006
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Tappoo City, one the largest investment in Fiji in the past few years, was built at a cost of $50 million.
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