He was a school dropout who slept in his car while working on a factory conveyor belt after coming to Australia to pursue his dream of starting a business.
Narinder Singh was a migrant kid who had fled, aged 13, with his family from the religious genocide of strife-torn Punjabi India to New Zealand in the late 1980s.
Despite learning English quickly, Narinder never completed secondary school and became a picker in a kiwi fruit orchard, saving money to move to Australia at the age of 19.
He worked as a labourer, in a petrol station, on a South Australian farm and loading the conveyor belt in an electronics factory, all the while sleeping in his Holden Camira to conserve his meagre funds.
He struggled to find any landlord that would trust a teenager with no experience to be able to run a business and pay the rent.
But this week - 20 years later - Narinder has just opened the 11th store in the QE quality food empire he built worth $50 million in annual revenue, with a goal to have 50 shops across Sydney by 2030.
Narinder and his wife Rajwinder (second left), their three children Garrick, Gurmilli and Reeva and his mother Jaswinder Kaur who with his father arranged the couple's marriage between India, New Zealand and Australia
Narinder arrived as a 19-year-old (above) in Australia and slept in his car while doing menial jobs before renting his first store with the dream of turning it into a business
The supermarket mogul credits his mother Jaswinder (above, mother and son this week) for 'pushing me harder than anyone else I know' to building his $50m empire of 11 supermarkets across Sydney
Narinder has built a loyal following of tens of thousands of customers in ten Sydney suburbs, some of whom told Daily Mail Australia they prefer to shop at QE instead of Coles and Woolworths because of the owner's 'attitude and habit of stocking items requested' by them.
He has a code of five values for the operation of his stores and the people he hires.
They are: 'We hold no grudges, respect for others, we are passionate, we are responsive and fast moving, and we are learners, curious and not afraid to try new things and make mistakes'.
With the motto 'quality food shopping made easy' and his aim 'to improve people's health, lifestyle and save quality time', Narinder says his greatest driver has been his Sikh mum, Jaswinder Kaur.
Narinder's family fled India after the infamous genocide following Indian PM Indira Gandhi's 1984 assault on the Sikh holiest temple in Amritsar, and her assassination which triggered killings around the country.
Frenzied mobs of young Hindu men burned Sikh-owned stores to the ground, dragged Sikhs from their homes, cars and trains, and clubbed them to death or set them alight.
Narinder (pink shirt) and his younger brother Balwinder during their childhood in the Punjab region of northern India which the Singh family fled after a campaign of genocide against Sikh people in the late 1980s
Narinder (right) and Balwinder after he made the leap to come to Australia, work menial jobs while living in his car and eventually opening their first shop where they worked 16 hour days
Narinder's father Amrik, whose family had farmed northern India for centuries, left for New Zealand in 1987, and his mother Jaswinder followed with her three children, settling in Tauranga on the North Island.
Amrik Singh worked in Kiwi fruit orchards and his parents paid for their son to learn English as quickly as possible.
But the teenager dropped out of school and joined his father picking fruit.
He saved up enough money to come to Australia on his own and decided sleeping in his car was the best way to save more while he worked a succession of jobs.
Narinder considered starting a carpet cleaning business, a restaurant, a convenience store or small supermarket, but found no landlord willing to trust a teen with zero experience.
In 2001, Narinder found a rundown shop in Darlinghurst, in inner city Sydney, owned by a young migrant from Greece, Bill Anton, who was willing to sign him up.
He opened the food store and worked 16 hour days, seven days a week to the point he was so exhausted he couldn't think straight.
Narinder (right), father Amrik, his younger brother Balwinder (left) and sister and two other young relatives back in Punjabi India where the Singh family lived before religious violence forced them to flee
Narinder gets up at 3am every day to buy fresh produce at the Sydney markets and based his stores on high quality products which shows like MasterChef popularised just as his QE stores were on the rise
Back in New Zealand, his
