Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo

Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo, also known as Haji Yusuf, was a Bahraini merchant and trader who, in 1890, took over his father's business and started the trading empire that would grow into the Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo Group, one of the largest independent trading companies in the Gulf region.

Kanoo introduced a number of innovations to Bahrain, including setting up the country's first bank and its first petrol station. He built a significant regional business in shipping and trading agencies, which brought him into conflict with British companies and authority, before seeing much of his holdings wiped out by the financial crisis that followed in the wake of the collapse of the pearling industry in the Persian Gulf.

Early life Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo was born in Bahrain in 1868, growing up in Manama, the lively trading centre of the small island nation. From an early age, he worked in his father Ahmed bin Mohamed Kanoo's business, a small foodstuffs trading company. Taking over the business from his father in 1890, at the age of 22, From this point and for the rest of his life, Kanoo would make annual trading voyages to India for four to six months.

Banking Kanoo also installed the first bank vault in Bahrain in 1913, a walk-in strong room acquired from British manufacturer Goodridge (the safe itself is on display today at the Bahrain Heritage Centre). This safe underpinned a number of banking services offered by Kanoo to local merchants, including Islamic finance and money transfers between Bahrain and Bombay. The existence of this banking system was part of the reason local merchants and traders in Manama resisted the establishment of the British-owned Eastern Bank in Bahrain, leading to a two-year stand-off with British authorities from the bank's first application to trade in 1916. Kanoo was, however, Horner noted, 'of very little actual assistance'. Kanoo applied for a loan of 20,000 Rupees from the Ruler of Bahrain, which was approved but then foundered on British opposition. Kanoo was forced to take a commercial loan at heavy rates of interest and sell off parts of his business. The loan was provided by his old rival, the Eastern Bank. The affair damaged both his business and his health, dragging on into the Second World War and miring the family in debt.

Kanoo was childless himself, but adopted the two sons and daughter of his brother, Mohamed when he died of plague at the age of 25 in the outbreaks of disease that swept Bahrain and the Trucial Coast in 1903 and 1904. Jassim and Ali, the boys, would go on to become partners in the family business. The girl was named Mariam.

Although he had managed to repay most of his debts by the time of his death on 21 December 1945, Haji Yusuf bin Ahmed Kanoo died leaving his two adopted sons just 10,000 Rupees with which to rebuild the family's fortunes. However, he also left them with a considerable collection of lucrative businesses and agencies and they formed a successful partnership that was to evolve into a major conglomerate with operations in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the UK.