Stuart Walsh is the director of Elete Water, a natural hydration product he hopes to see on every construction site across the Middle East. As well as being the region's distributor for the electrolyte, Walsh is the founder of a recruitment consultancy called Budge specialising in the construction and engineering industries.
How would you describe your financial journey so far?
It's been pretty secure; I've always had a job. My parents were pretty conventional in the sense that they got married, bought a house, had kids and set up their own business. They taught me to save for the future so I worked hard from an early age. I had paper rounds and worked in a supermarket during my teens and then moved into marketing and advertising in London before relocating to the UAE in 1998 to manage a hospitality chain's loyalty programme.
Why did you set up your business?
I was always frustrated working for a company because I knew there was more to making money. So when my wife moved to the UAE in 2002 and could not get a job in her field, we decided to set up a recruitment business in 2003. At the peak, we had 20 staff and a general manager running the company, which allowed us to return home to the UK to set up and manage the company's UK operation.
What is the biggest financial challenge you've faced?
The recession. At the beginning of 2009 the recruitment market collapsed. Suddenly we were managing an awful lot of overhead on a minimum income and because I haven't been through a recession before, it was the first time I've had to deal with something like that. It became a case of scaling back and we lost all of our staff, which was pretty upsetting. They say you should try and keep your emotions separate in business but when it's something you've built up over a number of years - it's hard. I moved back out here on my own in 2009 to salvage what we could with the recruitment business and then launched Elete Water in April last year.
How did you go from recruitment to selling an electrolyte product?
My father-in-law is the UK and European distributor for the product and he promotes it to the sports industry. But it's a totally different climate here so we are selling it to the construction industry for their workers.
With recruitment, your people are your commodity; you are selling people to people and require a lot of staff to manage that. As Budge grew, money wasn't the issue - it was dealing with the emotional side of the workforce. Elete, on the other hand, is beautiful because it's a container that arrives at the port and you simply send it to your customer.
What is the most valuable financial lesson you're learnt?
Again it was the recession. I think we were too nice. We didn't have a background in recruitment and could have been a bit more ruthless from the onset. And having a general manager who was not an equity partner does not work very successfully because at the end of the day it's not their business.
Are you a spender or a saver?
I was a spender but now I'm a saver. I think that's another big lesson learnt; we were crazy to think it was going to go on and on. We liked Dubai for the shopping and being able to spend on nice things for the home, holidays and clothes. And we've got a four-bedroom detached house in the UK that we stretched ourselves to buy in 2008 and had to spend money on to furnish. In retrospect, we should have saved a lot more.
Do you plan for the future?
We want to get Budge up and running again but the focus at the moment is on Elete Water. We have the distribution rights across the Middle East and I'm pretty optimistic about the future. At 37, I think I'm still young enough to make it big and I'm certainly young enough to recover from the crisis. But this time around it's like starting from the beginning again but with a lot more responsibility. When we started Budge we didn't have kids or a house but now we have a house in the UK, three kids, aged five, three and three months, and we rent an apartment here. The kids are going to cost more as they get older so that's a pretty daunting task when you want to put them through private school and university and set them on a firm platform on which to build their own life.
What financial advice will you pass onto your children?
To be entrepreneurial. We have village markets so we're talking about renting a stand there and making smoothies and showing them how to invest their pocket money in a blender so that they can make smoothies to sell. The entrepreneurial gene is definitely in the family; my wife's father has his own business; my parents had their own business and it was always a case of stand up and get on with it because no one is going to do it for you.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
The bio
Favourite food: Japanese
Favourite car: Lamborghini
Favourite hobby: Football
Favourite quote: If your dreams don’t scare you, they are not big enough
Favourite country: UAE
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
SHAITTAN
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Where to buy art books in the UAE
There are a number of speciality art bookshops in the UAE.
In Dubai, The Lighthouse at Dubai Design District has a wonderfully curated selection of art and design books. Alserkal Avenue runs a pop-up shop at their A4 space, and host the art-book fair Fully Booked during Art Week in March. The Third Line, also in Alserkal Avenue, has a strong book-publishing arm and sells copies at its gallery. Kinokuniya, at Dubai Mall, has some good offerings within its broad selection, and you never know what you will find at the House of Prose in Jumeirah. Finally, all of Gulf Photo Plus’s photo books are available for sale at their show.
In Abu Dhabi, Louvre Abu Dhabi has a beautiful selection of catalogues and art books, and Magrudy’s – across the Emirates, but particularly at their NYU Abu Dhabi site – has a great selection in art, fiction and cultural theory.
In Sharjah, the Sharjah Art Museum sells catalogues and art books at its museum shop, and the Sharjah Art Foundation has a bookshop that offers reads on art, theory and cultural history.
The specs: 2017 Lotus Evora Sport 410
Price, base / as tested Dh395,000 / Dh420,000
Engine 3.5L V6
Transmission Six-speed manual
Power 410hp @ 7,000rpm
Torque 420Nm @ 3,500rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.7L / 100km
Leaderboard
64 - Gavin Green (MAL), Graeme McDowell (NIR)
65 - Henrik Stenson (SWE), Sebastian Soderberg (SWE), Adri Arnaus (ESP), Victor Perez (FRA), Jhonattan Vegas (VEN)
66 - Phil Mickelson (USA), Tom Lewis (ENG), Andy Sullivan (ENG), Ross Fisher (ENG), Aaron Rai (ENG), Ryan Fox (NZL)
67 - Dustin Johnson (USA), Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (ESP), Lucas Herbert (AUS), Francesco Laporta (ITA), Joost Luiten (NED), Soren Kjeldsen (DEN), Marcus Kinhult (SWE)
68 - Alexander Bjork (SWE), Matthieu Pavon (FRA), Adrian Meronk (POL), David Howell (ENG), Christiaan Bezuidenhout (RSA), Fabrizio Zanotti (PAR), Sean Crocker (USA), Scott Hend (AUS), Justin Harding (RSA), Jazz Janewattananond (THA), Shubhankar Sharma (IND), Renato Paratore (ITA)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
FFP EXPLAINED
What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.
What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.
What are the penalties?
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
Yuki Means Happiness
Alison Jean Lester
John Murray
The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable
Amitav Ghosh, University of Chicago Press
Meydan race card
6.30pm: Baniyas (PA) Group 2 Dh125,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,200m
7.40pm: Maiden (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,400m
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh170,000 (D) 1,900m
8.50pm: Rated Conditions (TB) Dh240,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh175,000 (D)1,200m
10pm: Handicap (TB) Dh165,000 (D) 1,400m
Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
About RuPay
A homegrown card payment scheme launched by the National Payments Corporation of India and backed by the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s central bank
RuPay process payments between banks and merchants for purchases made with credit or debit cards
It has grown rapidly in India and competes with global payment network firms like MasterCard and Visa.
In India, it can be used at ATMs, for online payments and variations of the card can be used to pay for bus, metro charges, road toll payments
The name blends two words rupee and payment
Some advantages of the network include lower processing fees and transaction costs
