IslamicFinanceGuru Podcasts · Islamic Finance Guru

How Sunnamusk became a £20M international empire | Kazi Abidur Rahman

·51 min·3 clips

A £15K TV commercial in Cape Town helped reposition Sunnamusk as aspirational luxury.

Abid is welcomed to talk through the brand's growth. The interview opens with the surprise of a business that moved from 1 million to 20 million in turnover in six years and now has stalls in 33 locations across five countries across the world. The early story is blunt and scrappy. He says the business began with a small fragrance collection, then selling from the back of a van, long before the brand had any polish. The host leans into that origin. He asks what it felt like to build from humble beginnings and whether people underestimate businesses that start that way. Abid says the first phase was driven by passion more than experience. The team loved fragrance first and only later learned the discipline of business. The conversation then turns to how the products are made. Abid says the company originally bought bottles and procured stock itself, but now works directly with perfumers and develops fragrances through multiple rounds of revision. The standards are much stricter now. A fragrance may be revised eight, nine, or ten times before the team is satisfied. That process reflects years of learning. He says 15 years of experience has made the brand more exacting about both the fragrances and the decisions behind them. Pricing is laid out plainly. The brand positions itself as accessible luxury, with 100ml fragrances starting around 70 pounds and rising to 160 pounds before a planned private collection pushes the line further upmarket. The host then asks what luxury really costs. Abid says people often focus on the liquid, but natural ingredients and oud can be genuinely expensive, and the real value also sits in knowledge, formulation, and judgment. The tone stays steady throughout. He ends by saying the business has to stay hungry and humble because, however large it feels, it is still small beside companies doing billions.

As heard by us

A grounded founder story about fragrance, craft, and staying humble after scaling.

A fragrance founder's climb from selling out of a van to a 20 million turnover business gives this conversation its arc, but the more interesting part is how the brand's taste sharpened as it grew.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

A founder story with real numbers, real craft, and a reminder to stay hungry and humble.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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