Several retailing deals with fashion outlets have helped to nearly double this family’s wealth over the last few years. Just this year Al Tayer has brought US clothing brand, Gap, to eight stores across the Middle East and is due to open 29 more stores across the region. It also opened the first Banana Republic outlet in the UAE. This year the company celebrated the first birthday of luxury department store Harvey Nichols; the largest outside of the UK. It also opened the first Ligne Roset showroom in Dubai.

Most recently the group announced plans to ratchet up investment in luxury retail after securing a string of new deals. The company joined forces with Italian design jewels group to make its Middle East debut with a new boutique at Burjuman Centre in Dubai. It has also signed an agreement to introduce @home, a South African chain of home ware stores across the GCC. The group aims to open more than 20 stores within the next three years.

Other family members have more diverse business ventures, one of the most prominent being Al Tayer Motors run by Saeed Humaid Al Tayer. The division was established in 1982 and now represents major European and American carmakers, including Land Rover, Jaguar, Ford, Lincoln and Ferrari. Saeed Humaid also runs district cooling company, Empower, which is set to build the UAE’s largest pipe factory. In a joint venture with Danish pre-insulated pipe manufacturer Logstor in which Empower will hold a 51% stake, the new company, Empower Logstor will build the new pipe which is expected to exceed over US$1.5bn over the next five years.

Mattar Mohammed Al Tayer is the executive director of Dubai’s RTA which runs the operations for the metro system, the trams, the buses, the road network and the marine side across Dubai. Another success story has been Obaid Humaid Al Tayer Engineering, which was formed in 1981.