World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce – Southern California

JAL SOLI SHROFF: A Profile

By Anahita Sidhwa

/ On April 1 2009, the North Texas chapter of the World Zoroastrian Chamber of Commerce (WZCC) was honored and delighted to host Mr. Jal Soli Shroff for an award ceremony and dinner. Every year the WZCC recognizes outstanding Zarathushtis for their achievements in various business categories. At their annual meeting in Houston in December 2008, the WZCC named Dr. Villoo Morawalla Patell of India as the Outstanding Zarathushti Enterpreneur, and Mr. Nowshir Rusi Engineer of Dubai as the Outstanding Young Zarathusti Enterpreneur. The award for the Outstanding Zarathushti Professional was given to Mr. Jal Soli Shroff of Hong Kong. Since Mr. Shroff could not be present in Houston, but travels often to Dallas, Mr. Firdosh Mehta who is also the President of the North Texas chapter of WZCC, was entrusted with the task of ensuring that the award would be presented to Mr. Shroff with due ceremony. The Dallas community was thus the beneficiary of many people’s efforts and we were privileged to have the opportunity to meet Jal Shroff and spend the evening with him.

Firdosh Mehta introduced Jal Shroff, gave a background of the WZCC activities and awarded the elegant plaque to Mr. Shroff recognizing his many achievements. Jal said he was pleased yet humbled to be selected as the recipient of this award and his emotions were mixed, he had been surprised to hear he was the recipient, but he also felt humility and gratitude and thanked his friend Rusi Ghadaili of Singapore for nominating him.

The audience was interested to hear of Jal’s early life. Although he was born in Shanghai, he grew up in Hong Kong where his family was forced to settle after the communist take-over of China. His father set up the family business, S. Framjee & Co dealing with textiles and hardware, and Jal attended the University of London obtaining a degree in business. But he confided that his achievements on the sporting field outweighed academics! A keen cricket player, he had the distinction of captaining the Hong Kong Colony team against the Cricket Club of India which was led by the Parsi captain, Polly Umrigar.

Active in many volunteer activities in Hong Kong, Jal has been the chair of the Zoroastrian Charity Trust funds of Hong Kong, Canton and Macau for more than fifteen years, and also chaired the English Schools Foundation for 11 years. But his life took an interesting turn when an American from Dallas walked into his office in 1984 and expressed an interest to set up a business in Hong Kong. Jal credits his wife Pervin for encouraging him to take this man seriously and with a small initial investment, the company called FOSSIL was launched in Dallas with two employees. Making good quality, affordable fashion watches, the company served a niche market and was an immediate success.
In 1987, Jal and his wife established Fossil East in Hong Kong and in 1993 Fossil Dallas with its revenues of US $100 Million bought out Fossil East and consolidated the two companies into Fossil Inc which went public on the NASDAQ Exchange. Today Jal serves as a Director for Fossil Inc with strong ties to his business partners in Dallas. The company has also diversified into producing many accessory items like handbags, belts, jewelry, sunglasses and men’s shoes. Its products are sold in over 330 company-owned stores and also through independent retailers in over 100 countries around the world. In addition, it has also acquired or licensed many other brand names like Adidas, Burberry, Armani, Diesel, DKNY, D&G, Relic and Zodiac. Respecting the diversity of its 6,000 employees, the company’s success is based on its policies of integrity, honesty and hard work.
Home and family life play an important part in Jal Shroff’s life. With his wife, children and grand children, and his many volunteer activities he has little time to play cricket these days. But with his fellow trustees of the HK Charitable Trust, he is a wise caretaker of community funds and a worthy recipient of the World Zoroastrian Chamber of Commerce’s award as the Outstanding Zarathushti Professional for 2008.