Al Shaikh Trading Company

Our business, Al Shaikh Trading Company, is on Ac Road in Cherthala. We are down in the Alappuzha area. It’s a good spot for a trading company because the road is wide enough for the trucks to pull up. We deal with a lot of different goods, mostly whatever is in demand at the time. The warehouse is attached to the small office where we do the billing. It’s often humid here, being in Alappuzha, so we have to be careful about how we store things. We aren't a corporate office with a dress code. Usually, we are just in t-shirts and sandals because of the heat. The phones ring quite a bit and there is usually someone shouting in the back to move a pallet. It’s a bit of a scramble sometimes, especially when multiple shipments arrive at once. We don't have a website or anything like that. Most of our business is done through word of mouth and long-standing relationships with other traders. We just focus on getting the goods moved and keeping the books straight. The floor is just bare concrete and we have some old wooden desks that have seen better days. It’s a practical environment for trading. We work hard and try to get home at a decent hour once the last truck is loaded and the gates are locked for the night.