The maternal home of young Yahya was at Melparamba. During school holidays, dressed in shorts and barefoot, without a stitch of footwear, he would trek along the dusty, unpaved road from his home in Thalangara West to his mother’s house. Just before leaving home, his aunt would perch a large jackfruit on the boy’s head. To Yahya, those jackfruits were like Newton’s falling apple; a weight brimming with ideas, dreams, and the stirrings of a future yet to be claimed.

Each step he took with that jackfruit balanced on his head, Yahya imagined himself as the ruler of a vast empire. He pictured a life of wealth and power, rising among the elite of Kasaragod.  But more than anything else, he wanted to move his mother out of rented accommodation and build her a home of her own. 

He believed the first path to those dreams lay in the Gulf. The boy who dreamed of Dubai while sitting in a ferry boat on the return journey from Melparamba finally crossed the seas in 1982, travelling to Qatar in search of work. Pursuing his dreams with determination, Yahya grew into a successful non-resident entrepreneur from Thalangara.

What began as a small shop in Naif, Dubai, has eventually grown into a multi-million enterprise. Beyond the Middle East, across Asia and Africa, Yahya Thalangara’s ‘Wellfit’ has established its dominance in the car seat cover industry.

The visitor who rewrote his destiny
Until the late 1950s, Yahya’s grandfather, Ibrahim Musaliyar, ran a bustling cap manufacturing unit in Thalangara. The business was later handed down to his father and uncle, but it eventually closed its doors. Even son, Yahya grew up practically wrapped around sewing machines. His mother would often recall that he had learned to walk while gripping the rows of machines lined up in the workshop.

In 1972, Yahya joined his first cousin’s bag manufacturing unit in Bengaluru as a helper. The fascination with stitching machines that had taken root at a young age now ignited into a passion as he mastered stitching, cutting, and precise measurement.

 The dream of the Gulf, however, was alive in his mind even then. In 1986, he reached Qatar and worked for about a year in a car accessories firm, after which he started his own car accessories shop with three partners. He later opened a shop in Dubai as well. However, when the Dubai venture failed to generate steady income, Yahya withdrew from the partnership in the Qatar shop and took over the Dubai car accessories shop entirely on his own. It was an Arab customer who walked into this shop who would later rewrite Yahya’s life.

The turning point
It was 1987. An Arab customer walked into Yahya’s car accessories shop in Naif, Dubai and asked if a custom-stitched seat cover could be made for his Toyota. Yahya accepted the challenge and asked for a week. At the time, an Iranian-owned shop in Naif sold materials suitable for seat covers. Yahya bought the material there, cut it to size, arranged a second-hand sewing machine and stitched the cover himself.

The job took seven days. From measuring the car to designing the cover, Yahya handled everything, calling in a local tailor for assistance.

The customer left fully satisfied and paid him well. Later, when Yahya noticed seat covers for German cars at a nearby shop owned by an Iranian named Ameer Mirza, he asked if one could be sold to him. The request was refused unless it was part of a fixed order and meant to be taken abroad, not sold locally. Eventually, under those conditions, Yahya acquired the seat cover on an experimental basis through a friend.

Manufacturing Unit
Yahya began selling car seat covers in his shop after sourcing materials and stitching them himself. This unnerved his Iranian supplier, who feared it might cut into his own business. He, a he same time, was also struggling to maintain adequate stock on time. The Iranian then asked if Yahya could supply the covers to him wholesale instead of retail. Seeing a lucrative opportunity, Yahya didn’t hesitate to agree.

By 1988, Yahya had kicked off wholesale car seat cover sales in Dubai. In the beginning, he produced just one or two covers a day. By the 1990s, he had expanded, hiring more workers to ramp up production. With Ameer Mirza having no outlet for the extra stock, he finally allowed Yahya to sell the surplus directly in Abu Dhabi.

Trading comfort for ambition
This marked the start of a new manufacturing unit in Ajman. He began by making seat covers only for Toyota cars, but soon expanded to cover other new vehicles as well. At the time, he was still living in a rented house back home, while his biggest dream was to give his mother a proper home. Around the same time, the chance to acquire a more functional building in Ajman presented itself. Instead of building a house for himself, Yahya chose to stake his claim in business.

Convincing his family, he set aside the dream of a home for the time being and secured the space for his factory. By 1992, production had soared to 100 seat covers a day, and the Wellfit brand began to make its mark. 

The headlines that opened doors
To scale up production, Yahya flew to South Korea and was introduced to the latest machines for seat cover manufacturing. But acquiring them would cost a whopping one million dirhams. Around the same time, a Malayalam newspaper featured the rise of Wellfit and the success story of this Kasaragod native.

The manager of the National Bank of Fujairah, also a Malayali, happened to read the article and reached out to Yahya. He offered a loan covering 75% of the cost, leaving Yahya to arrange the rest himself. Yahya seized on the opportunity and imported automatic cutting machines from Gerber in the U.S., followed by cutting-edge conveyor belt systems from Eton in Sweden. With these high-tech additions, his operations began transforming into a full-fledged industrial empire.

Fighting copycats and rising stronger
From stitching a single seat cover in seven days, Yahya’s operation quickly scaled to producing 750 covers a day. Franchises sprang up all across major UAE cities, while exports spread beyond the Arab world to Africa, the U.S., and more. Installation time, once a gruelling eight hours, was cut down to just one.

The meteoric rise of Wellfit soon caught the attention of China, where counterfeit brands began cropping up under the same name and also as Fitwell. Yet, even in the face of imitation, demand for Wellfit continued to surge.

 Yahya, on the other hand, continued to expand aggressively and launched a second manufacturing unit in Ajman and another in Koratti, Thrissur, under the brand name Autofit. He soon diversified the product portfolio with premium seat covers under Yako, budget options under SeatX and medium-quality covers under Autolux.

Even as his business empire soared, Yahya stayed hands-on in philanthropy, partnering with KMCC and personally driving charitable initiatives. At the same time, he kept his creative spark alive, pursuing his passion in writing songs.

Coming Next: Detailing Shops
The next phase for Wellfit is the launch of car detailing shops, offering a full range of services from coating and washing to polishing, all under a single outlet. The first outlet is set to open soon in Ajman on a trial basis.

Meanwhile, Yahya fulfilled a long-held personal dream by building a spacious home in Thalangara for his mother, who had set aside her own wishes for years to support her son’s ambitions. Even at 90, she continues to live there.

Yahya’s family includes his wife, Suharabi, and their children, Suhair, Sahiya, Sahir and Safir. His son-in-law, Ramshi Ahmad, serves as CEO of the company, while another son-in-law is Gazali Bakker.