About Ajai

Ajai brings the impact of nearly 35 years of diverse retail experience to his consultancy. Having worked with some of the world’s best known brands, his core strength lies in creating and sustaining new business opportunities in emerging markets. He has travelled the world extensively in search of new brands and continues to build and maintain relationships in readiness for opportunities to match brand and market demand.

For the past 26 years, Ajai has been based in Dubai working with leading businesses in the Middle East. In 2011, he established Tridayle Consult to further his outreach and focus on his core passion of new business development. In his practice, he has worked on projects both in the Middle East and in India, primarily in retail.

Ajai Kumar Dayal, CEO

Before founding his own practice, for almost 9 years, Ajai was the General Manager – Retail and Marketing for the Easa Saleh al Gurg (ESAG) Group, a large UAE conglomorate, and a member of the Executive Board which oversaw all companies within the Group. His portfolio included the Italian fashion brand, United Colors of Benetton, which he re-launched and re-established in the region; IDdesign, a Danish furniture company, which he moved into mall retail with large stores covering a combined 60,000 square feet; OFIS, the office furniture division, which was repositioned and expanded with many new brands including Steelcase and Parador; and, Al Gurg Stationery, which was repositioned as a corporate supplier and launched its stationery portal, a first-in-class sales portal in the region.

At ESAG, Ajai also created a new home appliances and accessories concept store called Better Life, which won numerous Retailing and Marketing awards and was awarded the Best Distributor for Siemens in the Middle East and South Asia for 3 consecutive years. Better Life created a fresh segment of high-end appliance retailing in the region with a plethora of prestigious new brands like Fisher and Paykel, Smeg, Electrolux, Zanussi, Gaggenau and the top end German Kitchen maker, SieMatic.

Prior to this, Ajai worked for 9 years with the Rivoli Group, a leading Watch Distributor and Retailer, and launched several new brands including Timex and Cruiser as well as the Cellini range of luggage and bags. In 1997, anticipating new trends in the distribution market, Ajai launched the Hour Choice chain of stores in the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, setting up 42 stores in 3 years. Hour Choice created a new way of contemporary watch retailing for fashion brand watches in the mid-price segment and introduced brands like DKNY, Diesel, D&G, Cat, Anne Klein, Kenneth Cole, Bulova, Sekonda, Breil among others to the region.

Before joining Rivoli, Ajai was instrumental in establishing the SKC brand of video tapes as the leading brand in this region and launched Samsung Cameras in Dubai, taking it into the top five camera brands.

Ajai started his career in India and has over a decade’s worth of experience as a Branch Manager for Berger Paints in the National Capital Region, driving his branch to become the second fastest growing branch in the country for two years. He also spent 3 years as the Circulation Head for the Reader’s Digest, launching and marketing Sarvottam, the new Hindi language edition. He spent 2 years with the Thomson Press / Living Media Group as Marketing Executive and was part of the team that launched the Bombay and Target magazines. He also established the first organised subscription management system for the India Today magazine and promoted the sale of Thomson Press Children’s Books.

Ajai has a B.Com and MBA from the University of Allahabad, India, and lives in Dubai, UAE with his wife, daughter and a halfbreed Saluki who has no respect for his personal space and time.