YOU wouldn’t guess Surinder Arora was a big success on meeting him. Quietly spoken, hesitantly unassuming, he seems almost too gentle to have amassed the wealth he has.
And against what odds. Given away at birth in India, reclaimed by his mother at 13, sent halfway round the world at 14 to begin again in Britain, he has prospered through nothing more than hard graft, he says.
“For the first 20 years of my working life I did 20-hour days,” he says. “I didn’t have a two-week holiday until last year.”
And now, aged 47, he sits on a hotel and property empire with an estimated worth of £127m. Last month Arora, a golf nut, bought a chunk of Wentworth, the prestigious Surrey club, in partnership with Richard Caring, the clothing tycoon.
He also snapped up another nine hotels, following a deal to buy the BAA Lynton Airport Hotels unit trust, an investment fund that controls the sites.
And take a look at his office — a vast penthouse room, 60ft by 50ft, at the Arora International hotel on Heathrow’s Bath Road. Windows line three sides, offering panoramic views of the airport’s north runway. Jets drift down to land as we chat. It’s breathtaking. “We rent it out sometimes,” he giggles. “I get downsized to somewhere else.”
A boss who rents out his office? That’s Arora. He doesn’t like to let any opportunity pass him by. Yet, equally, he insists he has never had a career plan, not even in his early days at the comprehensive school in Acton, west London, where he learnt English.
“To be honest,” he says, “my plans are done on napkins in our restaurant downstairs, and I save them all. It’s something I learnt from my good old mum. Never get big-headed, be hardworking, never be shy, never be ashamed. And even if I am back to sweeping rooms tomorrow, I never will be.”
He grins then stops. His eyes have a sadness quite at odds with his cherubic smile. Short, balding and tubby, looking like a younger version of his friend Eddie Shah, the entrepreneur, Arora seems at times to carry the weight of a heavy burden — a throwback, perhaps, to that unusual childhood, and his efforts to show his worth ever since.
“When I was a few weeks old my parents gave me away to my mum’s sister in the Punjab,” he says. “She didn’t have any children, and my mum and dad already had two sons and a daughter. I was ten years later. In some ways I was a mistake.”
His real mum and dad then emigrated from India to Britain. Thirteen years later his mother returned and persuaded her sister that the boy’s future should be with them. “I remember landing at Heathrow a year later, still not realising I was coming to my real mum and dad. I thought they were my aunt and uncle. Then they told me.”
Difficult? “No, I think I’m just lucky. I had two sets of mums and dads.”
But since then his working life has been propelled by an extraordinary drive. Pushed into multiple jobs by his ambitious mother — who held down three jobs herself while her husband worked in a factory in Hounslow — Arora started as an office junior at BA while moonlighting as a hotel waiter. Later he was a salesman at Abbey National, rising to become branch manager.
In what spare time was left, he pushed the family savings into property, eventually developing a row of houses opposite Heathrow into large-scale bed-and-breakfast accommodation. From that emerged his first hotel and a deal with BA to accommodate its air crews.
That was only seven years ago. Now Arora has the biggest family-run, independent hotel chain in Britain, including purpose-built hotels at Heathrow (two), Gatwick and Manchester. The latter is a joint venture with Sir Cliff Richard — introduced by a mutual friend — complete with Cliff-themed bedrooms. Arora is even building another hotel at Heathrow, the only one at the new Terminal 5, a 600-bedroom joint venture with Accor’s Sofitel brand.
And still the deals keep coming. Last year he almost splashed out £100m for control of Wentworth until bids went too high, and he teamed up with rival Caring to clinch control. The same year he and his family took £5m from Arora Holdings, which had sales of £23m.
“It’s all sheer hard work, I promise you,” he says. “Here you can work really hard and you can achieve something, which is so different to other parts of the world.”
In truth Arora is backed to the hilt by his main banks, Allied Irish and Royal Bank of Scotland, and the queue to lend him more stretches down the Bath Road. That’s because he has been spotted as a winner. “He pays fantastic attention to detail, has high standards and he identifies risk,” says Tom Potter, the Allied Irish director who lent Arora his first £125,000 — the bank has since lent more than £150m to the hotelier.
“But it’s the way Surinder sits down with people, finds out what they want and addresses it,” says Potter. “He engages with people at all levels.”
That rapport, particularly with his own staff, has won Arora a wide range of fans. Sir Allan Leighton, the Royal Mail chairman who met Arora through their mutual love of Leeds United, says it gives the hotelier a real advantage. “His labour turnover, which in that sector is high, is astonishingly low. But he is not just a charming guy, he is very shrewd operationally. He has great humility but great capability too.”
That can be seen in Arora’s tight relationship with BA, in whose cargo division he used to work. His first hotel was built on a promise by BA to place its air-crew there — primarily because the site is directly opposite the airline’s Compass centre where the crews check in.
While hardly stylish, the 360- bedroom hotel — long, low and drably modern — is spotlessly clean and practical, right down to the shoe shop in the foyer selling flat pumps for stewardesses.
Now all Arora’s hotels mix air crew from different airlines (paying less than 50% of the room rate) with corporate customers and others. He contracts out catering, but keeps housekeeping in-house, the reverse of many other chains.
He can keep on top of cleanliness and efficiency that way, he says. He ran a restaurant with his first B&B, and found staffing and standards a nightmare, especially as he ended up cooking some nights. Now he is happier concentrating on his construction projects and the partnership deals.
Is there anything he hasn’t done? No, he laughs. You can add in pilot — he trained in his own time while at BA — and football referee (Isthmian League) too. Arora just likes being involved.
Where he has been smart, say others, is in bringing in talented executives, while keeping the feel of a family firm (Arora’s brother and brother-in-law are directors).
George Yoxall, an Arora non-executive director and former BA colleague, says delegation is key. “As you progress you get new priorities and you can’t continue to do the job you did. Surinder gets very good people involved.”
What drives him on? Arora shrugs. “I don’t know,” he says, raising both hands. “I just love hotels and property.”
But his main influence, he adds, was his late mother. He even considered naming his hotel chain after her — Shila.
“She just pushed and pushed me, being the youngest and joining the family at a late stage,” he says. Given the remarkable circumstances of his adoption and return, you can imagine that both he and his mother had points to prove.
Quite what she would have made of his involvement with glitzy Wentworth is another matter. Arora adores golf, and lives near the famous course. He bought in, he says, because he wants to improve the club.
But he and Caring, who made his fortune manufacturing clothes in Far East factories, seem chalk and cheese to some. They were introduced by Shah. A marriage of convenience? “Richard is chairman, I am deputy chairman, he is majority shareholder. It’s one big family,” says Arora. “He’s one of the nicest guys I have ever met.”
And they have not been slow to make changes. Membership is now closed — reducing the numbers clogging the tees — and the fees are going up, underwriting an expensive upgrading of course and clubhouse.
Eventually Arora would like to build a luxurious hotel there. “Thirty-six bedrooms, six stars,” he grins. He loves development. “I am very much hands-on. I eat, drink and breathe the building site.”
His £180m hotel project at Terminal 5, visible from his office, is a good example of that. He has persuaded the Accor hotel group to franchise him the Sofitel brand — he needs its worldwide reservation link. Accor liked his approach so much that it gave him another Sofitel at Gatwick to run.
So if he is prepared to throw himself into all that, why is he standing back from the hotels run by BAA Lynton unit trust? He has already said the fund will continue to manage them. Surely he has that expertise himself? “No, they are solid properties at great locations,” he says. “It’s a property deal.”
Clearly, even he has limits. “Yes, I think it would be lovely to scale down a bit soon,” he says, looking suddenly tired.
Does he push himself too hard? He nods. He has a wife and three children he would like to see more of, and more golf to play. But there’s always the lure of one more deal. “It would be lovely to get more hotels in city centres,” he says.
Where is he looking? “Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol,” he shoots back. Then he becomes serious. “But best to go step by step. I don’t want to try and run up a ladder.”
I don’t know, for a man heading a B&B ten years ago, surely he is proving pretty adept at it? And he laughs, not the slightest bit offended at all.
Surinder Arora's working day
THE Arora International chairman wakes at his home in Virginia Water, Surrey, at 7.30 most mornings. Surinder Arora has a cup of tea for breakfast and drives himself to work at Heathrow, arriving at 8.30.
“I normally go straight into meetings,” says Arora. “I schedule about five or six a day, internal, external, a lot going on with Terminal 5.” He will also tour his hotels, where he knows most of the staff by name, at all levels. “We look after staff like family, and guests like royalty. I’ve always said from day one, pray to God, we’ve not lost the family touch, and we’ll stop when we do.”
He works through until 7pm, sometimes later, and will frequently entertain contacts in the evening. It is taking a toll on his weight, he says, patting his large stomach. “And I don’t even drink beer.”
Vital statistics
Born: September 22, 1958
Marital status: married, with three children
School: Twyford comprehensive, Acton, west London
First job: office junior, BA
Salary package: £1m
Homes: Virginia Water, Surrey. He also has two homes in India and another in Dubai
Car: black Range Rover
Favourite book: Next To You, by Gloria Hunniford
Favourite music: Whitney Houston
Favourite film: any Bollywood
Favourite gadget: Blackberry
Last holiday: Dubai
Downtime
“I SPEND my money on holidays, my homes and my car,” says Surinder Arora, “I don’t have any bad habits as such. I want to keep the family feet on the ground.”
He likes to play golf twice a week — as co-owner of Wentworth, he can fit in a few rounds. He also likes football. He supports Leeds United. “When I came over to Britain, my brother was an Arsenal fan, and I just wanted to go against him. I go twice a year, and always watch the officials.”
Arora used to referee in the Isthmian League. “I have football to thank big time on the management side. You walk out with 22 players and you try and return with 22. You show everyone respect. In my business, whether you are a maid, a porter or whatever, nobody calls me sir, they call me Surinder.”
