British businessman Sukhpal Singh Ahluwalia has grabbed quite the media attention after buying an apartment of 11,416 sq ft at DLF’s ultra-luxury project, The Camellias, in Gurugram. Ahluwalia has bought the flat for Rs 100 crore, a report by Economic Times said, citing people familiar with the matter. The Camellias is one of the ultra-luxury projects of the DLF, which has about 16 towers, ranging from 18 to 38 stories.
Who is Sukhpal Ahluwalia?
Sukhpal Singh is currently the founder and non-executive chairman of a family-owned business – Dominus, focussing on real estate and private equity.
According to his LinkedIn profile, the company was set up in 2011 and now operates across several sectors, including hospitality, residential and commercial property, aviation, private equity, and wealth management. The company manages assets worth more than £1 billion and has over a dozen hotels under ownership or development. Dominus holds projects with a total development value of over £1.5 billion.
But Sukhpal doesn’t owe his success to Dominus alone. Before starting this company, he had established Euro Car Parts, which went on to become one of Europe’s largest distributors of car and light commercial vehicle parts. He actually launched this business in 1978, shortly after arriving in UK at just 18-years-old. From a single motor accessories shop, he expanded Euro Car Parts into more than 300 stores with over 12,000 employees. In 2011, he sold the company to the Nasdaq-listed LKQ Corporation but continued as Executive Chairman for its businesses in the UK and Ireland until 2018.
Ahluwalia’s Success Ladder
Ahluwalia’s LinkedIn profile says that during his leadership, Euro Car Parts invested heavily in the UK and created thousands of jobs. A major highlight was the opening of a 778,000 sq ft National Distribution Centre in Staffordshire in 2017. It was an £80 million investment that became one of the largest automated car parts warehouses in Europe.
Sukhpal has also founded other ventures. He is a major shareholder in VAR Capital, a London-based independent wealth management firm, which won Euromoney’s Best Family Office award in 2018. In 2019, he set up the Ahluwalia Family Foundation, which supports projects in the UK and India with a focus on education, enterprise, women and children’s rights, homelessness, and immigration causes.
In 2023, he acquired GSF Car Parts, the UK’s leading and fastest-growing car parts distributor, where he now serves as Executive Chairman and is directly driving the business’s growth.
Alongside his UK ventures, Sukhpal continues to invest in India and maintains close ties with the country. He visits often and has expressed his wish to return permanently in the future.