He’s a challenging tasks man! One of the most important pioneers in Egypt in the middle of the twentieth century…Nicknamed “Emperor of the Buses” where his name was associated with the golden era of public buses in Egypt. Abdul Latif Abu Rjeileh was born in 1911 to coincide with the establishment of the Zamalek club he headed latter in 1956, and in his reign, the club won its first league championship since its inception. Descendent from the city of Esna, governorate of Qena in Upper Egypt, he was born in “Omdurman” in Sudan, which was under the “Egyptian crown” at the time, and grew up between Sudan and Qena, before he finally moved to Cairo to join the Saidia High School to acquire his serious military character. Abu Rjeileh continued his education in Cairo and joined the Faculty of Commerce, yet along with his education he worked part time to support himself, acquiring the skills any businessman needs, the skill of making money at an early age.
After graduating he got his first job at Banque Misr and began his learning journey from his idle and teacher, Talaat Harb Pasha.
Abu Rjeileh considered himself a student at Talaat Harb Pasha School, a man who never reached the list of Egypt’s richest people despite his mega projects that ignited the Egyptian national economy.
Harb believed that success as a goal should precede gathering wealth for any businessman, and that money should be circulated in business at all times rather than accumulated in banks which he regarded as a wasted opportunity for the economy, which lead him through Banque Misr to establishing over 26 companies in the various fields and industries such as textile, Cinema, tourism, aviation and others.
Learning from Harb’s concept, Abu Rjeileh established his business after he left Banque Misr to start his own career path, with only 34 Egyptian pounds that he saved, he devoted himself to work in the field of exports and imports, competing with foreigners who monopolized this activity for decades.
The first year was a struggle, the second was a success, and after three years in business, he became a rich entrepreneur. But in the midst of the joy of this success, World War II started, and Allied air raids started hitting the Italian ports where all his goods lied at the time, turning from success to bankruptcy and decline and despite the horrors of the war, Abu Rjeileh reacted turned the downslope into success by taking the decision to marry an Italian girl Called “Linda”, and started all over again, after hard work and perseverance he managed to rebuild a wide fortune in Italy before deciding to return back to Cairo again after a long absence.
Upon his return, Abu Rjeileh bought a 400-acre farm in the Cairo. His business expanded along the following years between trade in crops, agricultural grains, ceramics and brake pads for cars.
“Abu Rjeileh” thus became Talaat Harb Pasha’s successor in developing the national economy imbued with the Egyptian spirit, and the sincere desire to break into all fields of business.
His patriotism was reflected in various actions, one of which was during the tripartite aggression on Port Said in 1956, he left all the company buses at the disposal of the Egyptian armed forces, ensuring the responsibility of supplying them and paying the wages of their drivers.
After the revolution of July 23, 1952, there was another major shift in the life of ” Abu Rjeileh ” as the foreign transport companies operating in Egypt suffered heavy losses, in the period after the end of the Second World War and the years that followed lead to their collapse in Egypt, he was then the man of the hour and the man who challenged difficult tasks, where he was summoned by “Abdul Latif Al-Baghdadi” Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs at the time, who asked him to save the transport network from failure, confusion, turmoil, debts and mismanagement, and out of the national interest, the man agreed to take the responsibility after many others failed to do the job.
He agreed unconditionally to do this arduous task, and succeeded in paying the back wages of the workers along with the 50,000 pounds, currently equivalent to $820,000, owed to the municipality, and within two years of hard work and disciplined management, he bought the latest International bus brands from Italy, Germany, France and re-built the industry, hiring a large number of workers who were tasked with the driving, supervision, cleaning and maintenance of his fleet of cars. He believed that the real progress of a country was measured by the efficiency of its transportation and condition of tits roads and infrastructure. Accordingly, one of the Jobs assigned to some supervisors is taking the route with the drivers and recording bumps or street disruptions that impact the scheduled timing set for the buses, usually, the following day bus drivers notice that bumps have disappeared and problems previously noticed, taken care of. Surprisingly, Abu Rjeileh used to disguise and ride the buses once a month to see how his company dealt with passengers.
Over time and within a short period of time, Egypt had 400 buses that provide an unprecedented efficiency for 13 million passengers per month. Abu Rjeileh Buses became famous for their punctuality, cleanliness and service.
He believed that buses were the first message that the average citizen received from the state after leaving his house. Abu Rjeileh buses were allowed to delay one minute only, and if the delay is more than that, there will be an investigation to find out the reasons for the delay. Thus, the drivers, collectors and inspectors working on “Abu Rjeileh” buses provided a model worthy of respect, discipline, good passengers service and high performance in accordance with the standards set for them.
It is worth mentioning that ” Abu Rjeileh ” opened the door for women to work in the transport industry, and was the first to employ women as a kind of propaganda and attractiveness to his buses, and to help people accept the idea he contributed to the production of the film “Beautiful conductors ” in 1957, starring Ismail Yassin and Abdul Salam Nabulsi and Ahmed Ramzi, Nagah Salam and Raja Youssif and Awatif Youssif, where the movie tells the story of three ladies who work as bus conductors. The film had a high impact in conveying the message for accepting women working in the different fields and sectors of the economy. Then he purchased a fleet of luxury Mercedes buses, which spread the joy in the streets of Cairo, and people were dealing with them as if they were going on a picnic, and boast among their friends that they had taken a ride in the “Abu Rjeileh” Mercedes bus.
There were two companies competing for the supply of gasoline and diesel to the fleet of Cairo Bus Company which he owned, he initiated contact with the leaders of these companies in an attempt to reduce the price of gasoline, and succeeded in actually reducing the price for the fuel needed to supply his bus fleet, to an amount of more than Ten thousand pounds, at the time his negotiation skills, persistence and good business ethics lead the deal through.
Abu Rjeileh took over the presidency of the Zamalek club in 1956, and in the same year the club won the Egyptian league championship for the first time in its history since its inception in 1911. In that period, the club was in debt, yet he took over the mission of adjusting its budget (through his personal donations), developing the facilities that have expanded significantly under his leadership as Abu Rjeileh donated a large amount to build the headquarters of the current Zamalek club in Mohandessin in 1958 and then he built the football stadium concluding the base for the current Zamalek club as it stands today.
When Abu Rjeileh tried to transfer to Egypt the rest of his money from Italy, he was faced with arbitrariness from the Italian side, so he decided to resort to the Egyptian authorities and provided them with a clever idea, which is to entrust the authorities with the task of recovering his money in the form of goods and machines for road works!
However, this cooperation between Abu Rjeileh and the ruling authorities did not last long. He suddenly found himself in a position of suspicion and accusation, and woke up to a decision to nationalize his companies in 1961 along with the nationalization of other companies and the transfer of his bus company to the Public Transport Authority in Cairo.
Abu Rjeileh then traveled to Italy and started again from scratch, but being the businessman he is, He soon worked on setting up a successful transport project in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, which lead him to recovering much of what he lost.
Abu Rjeileh latter returned back to Egypt in the seventies, targeting implementing the Egyptian subway project, which is a project he called for earlier in 1957, when its cost was no more than six million pounds.
Yet, this was a project he could not achieve as he passed away, yet years latter the project was re-launched in the early 1980s.
Abu Rjeileh passed away leaving his legacy as a successful business man, who same as Talaat Harb reflected the true business man’s care and sense of social responsibility through actions that positively impacted the economy, employment and production. Leaving a story of failures and successes through working hard and never giving-up.
