Anwar Barayil was born in Mahe, a small coastal village in the southern state of Kerala, India on 10th October 1956. He is the middle child (4th) of the seven children born to his parents C K Ebrahim Kutty and Barayil Ummachu.
Anwar did his primary school in Madrasatul Mubaraka Lower Primary School in Thalassery, Kerala and went on to do his 5th & 6th standard in Madrasatul Mubaraka Higher Secondary School and did his 7th standard education in Govt.High School in Pattikkad, Perinthalmanna along with religious studies in evening classes of Jamia Nooriya Arabic College as a resident student. After this Anwar moved to Chennai (then Madras) where his father was in Timber Business. In Chennai, Anwar joined Madras Christian College School he did his schooling till 11th Standard and passed in First Class. He went on to join Madras Christian College in Tambaram pursuing his degree in Biology. His desire to do Medicine was not realized due to the financial situation of his father.
Since situation at home was financially tight, Anwar in June1977 moved to Dubai in search of a job. After a few months of job hunting, he got a break as Claims Clerk in Ahmed Bin Ali Al Owais shipping company where he worked for few months and left that organization when a better job offer with higher pay came his way in Etisalat, the telecom corporation of United Arab Emirates.
During his 9 years (1978 to 1986) tenure in Etisalat, he grew in position from that of a Sales Clerk to Sales Representative in charge of Key phone systems and Public telephone booths moving from that position to that of Assistant Supervisor, Records & Statistics. When a higher position of Controller Publication within Etisalat was announced, Anwar applied for that position and was selected for the post after written test among all the candidates who applied. However, when the corporation refused to grant him the higher grade and higher salary on some flimsy pretext and on realizing that further promotions to higher grade within a semi government organization was reserved for the local population, Anwar decided to look for better growth opportunity outside Etisalat.
In 1986, after several searches, Anwar succeeded in getting a sales job in Transmed overseas Inc., Distributor for Mars Confectionery and P&G products, where he joined at the ground level positon of a Van Salesman. With true grit and sheer hardwork, Anwar got promoted to the position of Van Sales Supervisor, Managing the entire van sale fleet of the company. within 6 years in Transmed, Anwar grew to the positon of Unit Manager, Van Operation, Training and Special Projects. On realizing that growth within a family owned business will be limited and slow, Anwar decided to join Multinational FMCG company and succeeded in getting the position of Area Sales Manager for Saudi Arabia's central & wouthern region, based in Riyad, with fortune 50 MNC Gillette Middle East.
Starting as ASM, based in Riyadh, covering South & Central Region of Saudi Arabia, Anwar soon moved to Jeddah after 3 years, as Trade Marketing Manager for the Kingdom. In 1997, when Gillette M.E. acquired Duracell battery brand, Anwar was promoted as Trade Marketing Manager-Battery division for the middle east and was moved back to Dubai. In the 11 years of Gillette stint, Anwar also held positions of Trade Marketing Manager-Oral B division, TMM-Gillette Blades & Razor division, Sales Planning Manager-Midddle East and Sales Training Manager- Middle East. In 2004, Anwar Resigned from Gillette and employment to pursue his own business.
In 2005, Anwar opened a mattress showroom in the name of "Bu Adel Furniture & Textile Est. (Bafte) in Abudhabi and a garment manufacturing unit in the name of Amelini, in partnership with his brother in law, K. U. Abdullah who was a well established, one of the top 100 garment manufacturer and exporter in Chennai. He also imported Chemicals from South Korea into Chennai and created a brand, packaged and distributed the products, Tile Slip Stop and Palletizing Slip Stop. Both the garment business and the Tile Slip Stop business were wound up in 3-4 years due to various factors.
The one mattress showroom Bafte, opened in Abu Dhabi soon started opening showrooms in Dubai, Ras Al Khaima, Sharjah and Khalifa city. In the year 2009, When the American mattress brand Spring Air entered
Indian market, Anwar acquired the distributorship of Spring Air brand for the two southern states of Kerala and
Tamil Nadu and opened one showroom each in Chennai City, Mangalore, Thalassery and Cochin. in 2018-19 When Spring Air was sold to Kurlon Mattress company, Anwar one by closed all the showrooms and gave up the distributorship in both states in stages and concentrated in his UAE based mattress business.