‘Okay for us to get wet, but not the newspapers': Man who ran delivery business for over 40 years

Straits Times

21 hours ago

SINGAPORE – For most of his life, centenarian Abdul Gafoore placed his family before all else.
It was why he left Tamil Nadu for Singapore in 1946 at the age of 22, to earn money to send home to his parents and four siblings. It was also why he delayed marriage until he was 36, after his brothers and sisters were settled.
Mr Abdul, who will turn 101 in August 2025 , ran a newspaper delivery business and a provision store for more than 40 years. They brought him stability, but demanded long hours and discipline.
'Rain or shine, the newspapers had to be delivered by 7am every day. If it rained, it was okay for us to get wet, but not the newspapers,' says Mr Abdul in Tamil, with sons Mohamed Ali Gafoor and Ismail Gafoor translating .
'That's how demanding the newspaper industry was,' he says. 'If you were not feeling well, somehow you had to finish the job, then take care of your body.'
Even the compensation from injuries sustained while on the job went to his wife.
In 1980, a Japanese tourist opened the door of a taxi and accidentally hit Mr Abdul as he rode past on his motorbike stacked high with newspapers. The tourist gave him $100, which Mr Abdul used to buy a gold coin for his wife. She still has it today.
He and his wife of 65 years, Madam Maharunnisabi, 79, have a daughter and five sons, 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. One son, Mr Burhan Gafoor, 59, is Singapore's ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations. Another, Mr Ismail, 61, is co-founder and chief executive of real estate giant PropNex.
Mr Abdul's first job as a grocery shop assistant in Joo Chiat earned him $30 a month. 'In those days, $30 was big money,' Mr Ismail says. 'He would save up two months of pay, convert it to Indian rupees and send back 100 rupees every two months to his family.'
Mr Abdul's journey in newspaper vending is deeply interwoven with Singapore's media history.
In 1955 , he took over the distributorship of about 100 newspapers from a vendor who had returned to India. With savings and a few hundred dollars borrowed from moneylenders, he opened a kiosk in Nemesu Avenue in Upper Thomson to sell newspapers, magazines, drinks and daily necessities. He also made deliveries.
Within two years, he was selling 300 newspapers daily. In 1960, he married Madam Maharunnisabi. As their family grew, he started a provision shop at Block 56 Lengkok Bahru in 1972 to supplement his income.
His routine was relentless. He rose at 3am to collect newspapers – The Straits Times, Chinese dailies and Tamil papers – from locations like Cecil Street, Robinson Road and Times House in Kim Seng Road. He delivered in Sembawang until the early 1960s, and then in Bukit Merah until 2000.
His sons helped him do 4am delivery runs. 'By 6am, we would go to school but our father would continue distributing until 7am,' recalls Mr Ismail.
Mr Abdul would man his provision shop until 11am, when he would return the previous day's unsold newspapers to Times House, settle payments, and collect afternoon publications New Nation and later The Singapore Monitor to be distributed.
By the time he was done at about 2pm, he would head home for a quick lunch and an hour's nap before returning to his provision shop by 4.30pm, close up at 9pm, count the day's earnings, get home by 10pm, have a late dinner and be asleep by 10.30pm.
'This was his routine 364 days a year until he retired,' says Mr Ismail. The only holiday was on Boxing Day when there was no publication of newspapers.
When he started, Mr Abdul earned a 20 per cent commission on the 100 papers he distributed, which came to about $4 a day or $120 a month. As his distribution rose to 300 papers a day, he hired help and earned about $200 net a month.
Mr Abdul retired in 2000 at 76, handing the business to his son, Mr Mohamed. At the time, newspaper subscriptions and circulation were still strong, declining only after 2010, with the rise of digital media.
Mr Mohamed grew the business from 1,000 to between 2,500 and 2,700 newspapers a day. But in 2015, he sold the business due to manpower shortages.
'My children were grown up and had no time to help with the business,' says Mr Mohamed, 63, who is now associate branch director at PropNex. His seven part-time deliverymen at the time worked from 4am to 7am. 'It wasn't easy finding people willing to do this work.'
Mr Abdul with his wife, Madam Maharunnisabi, and their sons, PropNex associate branch director Mohamed Ali Gafoor (left) and PropNex co-founder and chief executive Ismail Gafoor.
ST PHOTO: JASON QUAH
One change the family welcomed was the decentralisation of newspaper distribution. Instead of hundreds of vendors converging at a few central locations to collect the papers, newspapers from Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) Jurong printing plant were dispatched to hubs across the island. This made route planning more efficient and reduced delivery delays.
'In the early years, hundreds of vendors would rush to the one or two central collection points. Everyone wanted to be the first to collect papers because they didn't want to be late with deliveries,' says Mr Abdul.
Mr Mohamed's hub was at Delta Swimming Complex. 'Only about 10 vendors picked up papers there. It was so much easier,' he says.
Mr Abdul also built a friendship with SPH's first chief executive, Mr Lyn Holloway, who died in 2019 at 90. They met in the mid-1970s when Mr Abdul was invited to Mr Holloway's home near Orchard Road as a representative of the news vendors.
Mr Abdul voiced vendors' concerns, especially delays in printing, which disrupted deliveries.
'Everyone wanted to deliver by 7am. Everyone had a second job to get to, or school to attend. Every time there was a disruption in printing, the vendors would squabble over who got priority in getting the papers,' says Mr Ismail.
Another issue Mr Abdul raised was commission, especially when SPH launched new weekly magazines or additional supplements requiring extra delivery runs.
Before going on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1982, he invited Mr Holloway to a reception. Though Mr Holloway couldn't attend, he sent Mr Abdul a set of Times Publishing cups. One remains intact and Mr Abdul still uses it for his morning coffee.
'My family is thankful to SPH and congratulates The Straits Times on 180 years of business,' says Mr Abdul.
News vending made a difference to many Indian immigrants who didn't have much hope when they arrived in the 1940s, he adds. 'It was a catalyst that made a difference in our lives and those of our loved ones back in India.'
The Gafoor family views the newspaper business as a proud legacy. It also enabled them to give back to Mr Abdul's home town of Kodavasal in Tamil Nadu. Mr Abdul donated his entire wealth to social causes there, transforming his 45,000 sq ft home into a religious school for women with more than 300 students, and funding a mosque, community hall and clinic.
'My younger brother Burhan was still delivering newspapers in 1988, the same year he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,' Mr Ismail adds, chuckling. 'We were all newspaper boys.'