Mohammed Abdullah Shaikh, the founder of Tinka, was born in India into a family of humble farmers. He has always made great efforts to improve his social status and his family’s. As a great dreamer with the highest aspirations, he moved to Mumbai in 1983 in search of new opportunities, and here, for the first time, came into contact with the Marble industry. His work consisted in moving and handling Italian marble imported to India. After just three years, M. Abdullah Shaikh put his entrepreneurial talents to good use and began working as a Contractor in interior marble installation and finishing, and was soon working with all the major stone industry leaders in India.
His great interest in Natural Stone, particularly all the varieties of prized Italian Marble, led him to Italy in 1990 . He was immediately impressed and decided to move there permanently. For several years he worked in the country as International Purchasing Dept Manager in the Marble block and slab trade dealing with stone from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Turkey and Iran, personally sourcing it directly from the quarries. During this period he acquired great expertise in the stone sector becoming one of the best, most respected buyers in the business. At the height of his career he was handling a volume of over 120 containers per month.
Turning his dream into a concrete business project, in 1998 M. Abdullah Shaikh set up Nagma Stones Pvt Ltd in India, which several years later became Tinka Stones Pvt Ltd. The company dealt with processing, marketing and selling a wide range of Natural Stones (Marble, Onyx, Granite, Travertine etc) in blocks and slabs imported from all over the world, particularly stone sourced from Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Portugal, Iran, China, Vietnam and South America. In a short space of time, the company began to flourish making its mark on the Indian and International market, due to the high quality of its stone as well as its reputation for timeliness and professionalism.