How on earth does an Englishman end up working for a Japanese car accessories company in Dubai?
My background has always been in retail. I had my own chain of electronics stores in the UK, but the workload was killing me. So I sold up and came over to our holiday home in Dubai for a year off. However, after a month or so my wife told me to go out and get a job. I think I was driving her mad! I ended up doing some retail consulting and was offered the job of setting up Yellow Hat. So you were there from the very beginning? Yes. It was just me at the start. Now we have a fully staffed store with loads of different nationalities in the family. What does Yellow Hat sell? We have over 3,500 automotive products. We sell alloy wheels, stereo equipment, accessories, cleaners, books, magazines and loads more. If it’s for a car, we probably sell it. Everything apart from the car itself basically! Why is the company called Yellow Hat? It’s associated with safety in Japan, as all school children wear bright, yellow baseball caps when out and about, so they are easy to spot. Safety is a big p
