Since the government announced lockdown in March this year, restaurants and food businesses around the country have been affected in various ways.
While some restaurants have permanently closed down, others are looking at innovative ways to stay afloat, with many of them turning their establishments into takeaways.
After much deliberation fine dining restaurant Prashad too has come up with an incredible burst of energy and ingenuity to help their customers and frontline workers during these difficult times.
The 2 AA Rosette restaurant has turned into a takeaway social enterprise during lockdown, putting #CommunityChaat firmly on their menu.
Manager Bobby Patel said: “We are a fine dining restaurant this is our passion, this is our root and to convert to a takeaway was very daunting, something Minal and I wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. But we felt there was a responsibility something where we needed to be able to potentially save our business and to be able to engage with the community.
“We wanted to make sure that whilst we try and run our business, we wanted to do some good.”
Chef and partner Minal added: “Over the last few weeks we have had the opportunity to feed some frontline workers, but we want to do more, and we can do that with your help.”
Their new #CommunityChaat initiative means those wanting to continue enjoying Prashad’s award winning vegetarian food can now do so in the comfort of their own home, but customers can also pay it forward by offering to donate a meal for front line workers.
The #CommunityChaat concept is simplified into 4 easy steps
Nominate within your community by sending Prashad a private message on Facebook, with name, address, contact number and background of the person or group.
3. Initiate
The team at Prashad then contact your nomination and arrange the meal.
4. Celebrate
Together everyone celebrates, having brought some happiness to our community.
Since launching the concept a few days ago Prashad have already been able to serve more than 40 meals, with Batley Parish School being one of their most recent recipients.
Bobby said: “I love making the call and arranging the meal from our community. The feeling is immensely satisfying and I am humbled at the generosity of our customers.
“Proud of our customers and grateful to be able to collectively have a positive impact.”
So why not join #CommunityChaat and while team Prashad are busy in the kitchen you can get busy online by helping identify the most deserving or the most in need of a hot wholesome curry delivered to the door.
Businesses around the world are being disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak due to supply disruptions, workforce constraints from sickness and self-isolation measures as well lockdowns and the restriction on the movement of people imposed by governments. Where possible, businesses are asking their employees to work from home. However, in light of these difficulties businesses and indeed individuals may find it impossible to meet certain contractual obligations and deadlines.
So the law……..
Under English law, once you have contracted to do something, there are very few ways in which you can avoid those obligations without having to compensate the other party for failure to perform the contract. One possible way may be to invoke the “force majeure” clause in contracts. This type of clause, commonly found in commercial agreements, usually states that one or both parties will not be liable for any delay in performance or non-performance of its obligations under the contract upon the occurrence of certain events, such as accidents, acts of war or terrorism, civil or military disturbances, natural catastrophes or acts of God.
What does the contract say…..or not say….?
Most contracts will provide for some form of relief for exceptional events outside the parties’ control such as “force majeure” or as constituting a type of “exceptional event”.
The scope of the force majeure relief will depend entirely on the terms of the contract. The starting point is to check the definitions in the contract to see if it contains an exhaustive list of events, in which case you would need to consider the terms used to see if they would cover coronavirus. If there is a non-exhaustive list, then there will likely be greater room for arguing that coronavirus is covered in principle. While it is unlikely that contracts will specifically list “coronavirus” in the force majeure definition, there may be other terms that are applicable, such as “epidemic” or “pandemic”.
Is the contract frustrated…..?
If there is no force majeure clause it may be possible for the defaulting party to argue that the contract has been frustrated. In order to claim frustration of a contract, a party has to demonstrate that the contract is incapable of being performed due to an unforeseen event and that the event in question resulted in the contractual obligations being radically different from those originally contemplated. Proving a contract has been frustrated is very difficult but if successful then the contract will be automatically terminated at the point of frustration with the parties being discharged from future obligations.
And finally….. its “business as usual” at Blacks……………..
If you are involved in any contractual dispute or if you require assistance with the preparation or interpretation of a contract then Blacks Solicitors can assist. Please contact Luke Patel on 0113 227 9316 or 07971 847132 or by email at “LPatel@LawBlacks.com”
“INNOVATIVE” market traders in Bradford that are altering their businesses to offer home deliveries during the Coronavirus pandemic have been praised by Bradford Council.
Since the start of the crisis a number of businesses have begun offering fresh food home deliveries to help housebound customers and keep the economy afloat.
The new service offers a wide range of fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, including Halal, fish and eggs.
Tinned foods, pulses, grains, pasta, flours, rice and oils are also available along with ground spices, cheeses, cakes honey and jam.
Pet products can also be ordered.
With major supermarkets struggling to meet home delivery demand, the new markets’ service gives local people a vital additional option. Many market traders are also better stocked on many items than nation chair retailers.
It also helps relieve strain on supermarkets.
Wholesale trader, Delifresh, which usually supplies produce to top chefs and restaurants in the region, launched the store earlier this month to help support high demands for groceries and ensure those who need it.
The new side to the business has proved hugely popular in its first few weeks.
All Bradford Markets’ food and essential household items stalls remain open and staff are putting social distancing and Covid 19 hygiene measures in place to protect their customers and staff.
St James’s Wholesale Market, off Wakefield Road, has responded to the current crisis with amended opening hours which now run from 5am – 9.30am from Monday to Saturday, with most companies offering deliveries to retailers across the district .
Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, said: “In the face of the Covid 19 pandemic, Bradford people are showing great resilience, determination and innovation.
“It’s very important that people Stay. At. Home, so I am pleased market traders are offering this service to enable people to keep staying at home.
“We are doing everything we can to support and protect local people, and we are delighted to see local market traders quickly diversify into local deliveries
People can contact the many Oastler Centre and Keighley Market offering a home delivery service by visiting Bradford Markets’ website www.bradfordmarkets.com/food-traders-still-open-for-business/
For Delifresh home deliveries visit delifreshltd.co.uk.
The pandemic, and calls for everyone to stay at home, has led to many businesses diversifying to add delivery services, from restaurants to breweries.
Kirklees Council in partnership with West Yorkshire Police is taking action to stop businesses opening illegally.
Over the last two weeks the Government announced that all pubs, bars, restaurants and cafes and shops selling non-essential items should close to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Council’s Environmental Health team will take the lead on enforcing the current and any future legislation in relation to premises which should remain closed – with the support of the police where necessary.
Whilst most businesses are complying with the requirement, some may continue to put lives at risk.
Where necessary the Council’s Environmental Health department, the Police, Licensing and Trading Standards will work together to enforce these closures.
Members of the public who become aware of any premises operating outside of these restrictions are encouraged to contact the Council in the first instance. Anyone who has information about businesses operating illegally can contact the Council by emailing: coronavirusbusinessclosure@kirklees.gov.uk.
Due to an unprecedented number of calls currently being received by the police – they are asking the public to consider carefully before reporting matters to them. The advice is that members of the public should only contact the Police if there is a large gathering and they do not feel that it can wait until the next day, when the council will be able to investigate. Authorities appeal for everyone to work together and use a common sense approach at this time
However, advise that where there is a clear risk to public safety, people should contact the Police as usual by calling 101.
For food businesses and licensed premises who have been required to close but who wish to operate as a takeaway, the Council are offering help to do this safely and in accordance with the law. They are asking businesses to let them know if they are planning to operate in this way and want to remind businesses that they still need an off license if they want to offer alcohol on their takeaway menu.
The Police also have new powers to deal with public gatherings of more than two persons or unnecessary travel. The Police are monitoring the situation and dealing with situations – again please think carefully before reporting matters to the Police.
Cllr Rob Walker Cabinet Member for Environment said: “Our officers are working with the Police and local businesses to make sure they are following Government guidance on social distancing, operating within the law.
“The list of businesses that have to close, is changing on a regular basis, and this means that it is really important that people have somewhere to go to share their concerns and get clarity on whether something is illegal.
“We realise that this is a difficult time for everyone, and most, if not all businesses will want to comply with the new rules – if anyone has any questions I would encourage them to email the team who will be happy to offer advice and guidance.”
Further advice on what premises can be open at this time is available online from central government
The Government have also announced a range of financial help for businesses. To find out more visit the council website: www.kirklees.gov.uk/coronavirusbuiness
The Chancellor has today announced that self-employed people losing work over coronavirus will be handed emergency government grants worth 80% of their average income up to £2,500 a month.
The payments will be based on a self-employed person’s profits over the last one to three years and will be open to anyone with trading profits of up to £50,000.
It comes as ministers were under increasing pressure to offer the self-employed a package of support as has been provided for employees.
Rishi Sunak said he recognised people who work for themselves were “deeply anxious” as the spread of the virus shutdown businesses and said “you have not been forgotten, we will not leave you behind”.
Sunak said: “This scheme will be open to people across the UK for at least three months.
“And I will extend it for longer if necessary. You will be able to claim these grants and continue to do business.”
Sunak said the government can’t protect each job or every business, so the scheme will be only available to those who make the majority of their income from self-employment, so only the “genuinely self-employed” benefit.
“To minimise fraud, only those who are already in self-employment who have a tax return for 2019 will be able to apply,” he said.
“Ninety five percent of people who are majority self-employed will benefit from this scheme.
“HMRC are working on this urgently and expect people to be able to access this scheme no later from the beginning of June.”
Those eligible will be contacted by HMRC and the money will be paid into their bank accounts in one lump sum.
Anyone who missed January’s filing deadline will have four weeks to submit their tax return, but anyone who has been self-employed for less than a year and does not have 12 months’ worth of accounts to submit will be unable to access the scheme
The chancellor said the reason for this was because it would be too administratively complicated and too open to fraud to extend it to them.
While the announcement may provide some relief for self-employed, the scheme won’t actually be available till June.
Supermarket shelves are empty, and social media is littered with people slamming businesses for hiking their prices and taking advantage of the coronavirus outbreak.
Some posts have gone as far as claiming that Asian supermarkets have been fined thousands of pounds by Trading Standards. Many are also calling for boycotts of the stores who they believe have taken advantage.
So, what is the truth? Are people being ‘ripped’ off and taken advantage of during challenging times? Or have prices in the supply chain really gone up, that retailers must pass on to the consumer?
Is the consumer being taken advantage of during the coronavirus pandemic?
Are retailers selling at inflated prices?
Asian Sunday Investigates
The majority of the complaints sent by Asian Sunday readers seem to focus around halal meat at the Asian supermarkets, so this report primarily focuses on the cost of halal meat and poultry. Our Editor Fatima Patel chose to visit six of Bradford’s leading and established Asian supermarkets. They are Haqs in Listerhills (now under new management believed to be Kanapeena), Saveco Supermarket in Thornbury, Pakeezah Supermarket off Leeds Road, Al-Halal (Worldwide) supermarket on Shearbridge Road and Manchester Superstore on Planetrees Road.
First stop on Friday evening 20 March started with Al-Halal supermarket. The place was heaving as expected, with some shelves looking empty, however all the fruit and vegetable areas were fully stocked as was the fridge with milk yoghurt and butter.
The meat and chicken counters had queues of people too, and supply also seemed decently available. The meat and chicken counter had pricing clearly labelled, with lamb leg/shoulder at £10.99 per kg, Sheep mix at £6.99 per kg, Sheep Chops at £7.99 per kg and chicken boneless leg at £4.99 per kg. Manchester Superstore, Pakeezah supermarket, Kanapeena and Saveco were not far behind on these prices. Some were slightly higher due to the nature of whether the meat and poultry was HMC certified or not and perhaps also due to the quality of cut.
Even the Halal counter at Tesco on Great Horton Road was selling their Halal lamb shoulder at £11.50 per kilo. So clearly prices had increased across the board with retailers.
Meat prices at Worldwide supermarket
The main and perhaps the only Halal meat wholesaler in the north of England is Yorkshire Halal Meats. In a statement they said that as a result of high demand due to the coronavirus outbreak meat prices have invariably had to go up.
Meat traders claim that there are many factors why the price of meat has risen exponentially. To start with its lambing season, which means generally there is less lamb from January till around May time, resulting in peak lamb prices. To add to this due to the coronavirus outbreak this has increased demand for meat
Farmers Weekly reports that ‘frantic buying at livestock markets amid the coronavirus has seen new-season lambs hit 300p/kg, with national averages up £32 a head on the year.’
Their article dated 18 March states that ‘old-season lamb SQQs rose to 251p/kg on Monday – up more than 50p/kg on the year – and a small entry of new-season lambs averaged 295p/kg.’
However, the article also says that auctioneers believe high prices could be short-lived once people have filled up their freezers.
One retailer who didn’t want to be named said: “Retailers can’t shop around as they are being held to ransom by wholesalers.”
In respect to poultry suppliers, Gafoor Poultry are said to be the largest suppliers and for most of our retailers the only wholesale suppliers of halal poultry in the north of England. Asian Sunday tried to contact Gafoor Poultry, but no one was available for comment.
On 17 March however a Blackburn based Asian newspaper quoted Gafoor Poultry as saying that they “are not increasing any prices.”
The newspaper reported that they had ‘quelled rumours, that the price of chicken had gone up and confirmed to the paper stating, “Nobody is trying to take advantage of anyone due to the coronavirus. We want to support the community.”
Asian Sunday was shown a letter dated 18 March, sent by Gafoor Poultry to their customers, informing them that ‘prices have increased sharply in the last week and are expected to rise further due to uncertainty in world markets with weakening exchange rates due to coronavirus developments.’
It was clear from the invoices seen by Asian Sunday that wholesalers had increased prices and as a result many of the supermarkets had to pass the increases on.
Saveco said in a statement: “Like many companies, we are facing many unprecedented challenges, such as interruptions in our supply line, shortage of stocks, etc.”
“Wherever possible we will not be raising our prices to take advantage of this unprecedented situation in the event that prices have been raised drastically by our supply chain and where we see no viable alternative, you may see an increase in price on some products but we will try to keep this at a minimum and only where absolutely necessary.”
Saveco showed Asian Sunday recent purchase invoices from wholesalers for meat, poultry and fruit and veg purchases, which clearly demonstrated the price rises.
Worldwide Foods, also known as Al-Halal supermarket had a similar view. A spokesperson for the retailer told Asian Sunday: “People are rightly upset and angry about the rise in prices, but so are we, as we too have been affected with price increases from our suppliers, but what can we do, we need stock and sadly have to pass the price on.”
On being questioned about why prices in the four mainstream supermarkets have been able to fix their prices, while ethnic retailers have not the Asian retailer said: “This is because suppliers for multibillion corporations are generally tied to long-term contracts at fixed prices while we are considered ‘spot buyers’.
Yoghurt, milk and butter in plenty of stock at Asian Supermarkets
“While this has given us the ability to maneuver and stock groceries at bargain prices for more than 30 years in operation, it also means that at times of crisis, we can be handicapped with products being sold at the market value or more when stock is nowhere else to be found.”
Social media was also rife with news that supermarkets had been fined by Trading Standards.
Al-Halal was listed as being fined £30,000 by one post and £10,000 by another. Al-Halal spokesperson said: “We complied with trading authorities on 17 March at our head office and left them satisfied by producing invoices and valid documentations from suppliers establishing our sincerity and transparency. Worldwide Foods is trying to absorb the rising costs as much as possible, as the virus and shutdown of Europe takes its toll.”
Trading Standards have not issued any statements or releases confirming fines on supermarkets and Asian Sunday will continue to follow up for a comment.
It’s doesn’t take much to conclude that both retailers and wholesalers have had price increases and as a result this has been passed down to the consumer. However, there is no clear answer as to whether the consumer is being over charged and taken advantage of during covid-19 outbreak.
What is important to note though is that meat and poultry prices are constantly changing and the retail outlets we are buying from may well have bought at a different time to another resulting in varying prices. One business may also be run more efficiently with lower overheads and operating costs than the other. There are many factors to consider.
Many trader news outlets suggest that we should reasonably expect prices to be about 20-50 per cent higher than normal and that this should only remain the case for the next week or so if consumers start buying at their normal rate and not continue to panic buy.
If consumers do feel that prices are unnecessarily inflated then they can report the business to the Competition & Markets Authority who will carry out a detailed assessment and naturally if proven then the business will be named and fined, and reported in the media.
Asian Sunday urges its readers not to panic buy. Consumer buying patterns can also dictate prices, and panic-buying and hoarding creates a reaction within the supply chain leading to price changes, so panic buying should be stopped immediately.
According to reports there is now over a billion pounds more food in households than in shops and so it’s vital during such times that we do not waste any of those purchases and put them to good use.
We waste on average about one-third of food produced for human consumption globally, and each family wastes around £470 per year on food. Let’s hope our bins don’t go full of, waste food over the next few weeks.
To conclude, among the wholesalers, retailers and consumers, no one seems to be winning against the Covid-19 virus and challenges are being faced by ALL. Which means there is only one thing that needs to be said here – we are all in this TOGETHER.
Schools across England will be shut down from Friday until further notice as the coronavirus crisis deteriorates, the government has announced.
The move was unveiled by education secretary Gavin Williamson where Friday will be the last day of normal lessons.
However, powers in emergency legislation – to be passed by the Commons within days – will allow ministers to force some schools to remain open, for the children of essential workers.
It means some youngsters will go to different schools, if their own has been shut down, relieving their parents of childcare responsibilities if they are needed to fight the outbreak.
At a Downing Street conference Boris Johnson said schools would not be shut for children of those in crucial jobs such as police officers, delivery drivers and medical staff, but it is not yet clear how this exception will be implemented. The Prime Minister said the Government would ask nurseries and private schools to comply with the measure, which will see exams cancelled for this academic year. Westminster’s top scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance said the decision was not being taken because Covid-19 is dangerous to children, but because it is an extra step to stop more at-risk people being infected.
He stressed that mums and dads should avoid leaving their children at home with older relatives ‘who may be particularly vulnerable’. The Government vows to provide financial support to families with children on free school meals who may face extra costs as a result of the move, but concerns remain about how parents who have to go to work will be able to handle the change.
Speaking to colleagues in the Commons today Williamson said: ‘I want to provide parents, students and staff with the certainty they need. After schools shut their gates on Friday afternoon they will remain closed until further notice. This will be for all children except to those of key workers and where children who are most vulnerable.’ ‘I know the situation has become increasingly challenging. I’ve said before that if the science and the advice changed, such that keeping schools open would no longer be in the best interest of children and teachers, that we would act – we are now at that stage.
‘The spike of the virus is increasing at a faster pace than anticipated and it is crucial that we continue to consider the right measures to arrest this increase and to relieve the pressure on the health system.
‘The public health benefits of schools remaining open as normal are shifting. It is also clear that schools are increasingly finding it more difficult to continue as normal as illness and self-isolation impacts on staffing levels and pupil attendance. ‘The scientific advice shows that these settings are safe for this small number of children to continue attending. But asking others to stay away will just go towards helping us slow the spread of this virus.
‘My department is working closely with local authorities, representatives of early years schools and headteachers, regional schools, commissioners and bodies such as Ofsted and Ofqual about how to deliver this change as effectively as possible. ‘And we will do whatever is necessary to support local authorities, schools and teachers through the weeks and months ahead.’
Richard Davies is a Coach and a Consultant – with two different areas of focus. As a coach, he helps senior leaders rebrand themselves to land a portfolio / non-executive director career. As a consultant, he helps improve the performance of Virtual Teams. You can contact Richard at richard@gpsgoaltrak.org
He gives Asian Sunday business readers his advice on business continuation during the COVID-19 lock down
COVID-19 is about to change the working environment for thousands of people. As offices go on lockdown – people will have to work from home. In some cases, organisations will have to switch to virtual working overnight. In this article, I share some practical tools to help leaders build trust and innovate virtually.
Leaders will need to adapt to the challenge of managing distributed teams.
Leaders can’t rely on the conversations in the corridor, or brainstorm sessions in meeting rooms. The virtual manager can’t manage by walking around. ‘Command and control’ at a distance is impossible; they are going to have to trust the members of their team to solve problems, think creatively, and take the initiative when opportunities come up. If they wait for the manager to give them instructions every time they need to make a decision; this spells trouble.
The Challenges Facing Virtual Leaders
Virtual team members often feel isolated and demotivated. There’s never enough time to explain their environment and challenges to the boss.
People are easily side-tracked – especially in Virtual teams where the local environment introduces competing priorities and distractions
Trust levels in virtual teams tend to be lower than in teams that sit together.
The Importance of Trust
Some say that the only factor necessary to create efficient virtual teams is to buy the right technology. This is not true since it’s all about the people, and it ultimately comes down to trust.
Building trust is the foundation for effective virtual teams. Having led virtual teams for 15 years in my corporate career, I found that trust reduces the distance between the leader and team. It took me a while to realise this important fact. The closer the connection forged between people and purpose, the higher the potential for powerful performance.
In virtual teams, the ability to trust individuals to ‘do the right thing’ – especially when supervision is impracticable is critical. A virtual leader must establish the high trust relationships that will underpin the alignment of goals, the clarification of responsibilities and the winning of commitment.
It gets even more challenging.
Businesses will also need to become ever more innovative to meet the challenges of the next few months.
It’s a double whammy.
The Need for Rapid Innovation to meet the Challenges created by Coronavirus
The urgent need to adapt to new ways of working calls for rapid Innovation. What do I mean by Innovation? I covered this topic in a post earlier this year, which you can catch here: https://bit.ly/3aSWS1N
In short, Innovation occurs at many levels. It can be a new process, a novel way of marketing, or an everyday improvement to make things simpler or more affordable. It does not need to be a radically new product or service. The reality is that businesses will need to implement innovations at multiple levels at the same time as having their workforce fragmented.
How can we make Innovation Happen in a Virtual World?
The Key to virtual Innovation is to create a high trust culture that values and therefore enables thinking or cognitive diversity. I have found the below framework useful – it comes from Axiometrics. This framework is based upon Robert S Hartman’s work that established 3 Dimension of Value – for which he received a nomination for a Nobel Prize. His field is known as formal axiology from which Axiometrics has been developed. If you’d like to find out more, below is the link to an article I wrote last year.
It is essential to have balance in your activities across People, Task and System. For example, if you find that you are too Task focussed and neglect People and System, you will not build trust. Check that you are practising the points in the strengths column and not slipping into the behaviours in the toxic column.
Innovation Leadership Skills Tool
I want to end with a practical tool to help all the unexpected Virtual Leaders develop their Innovation Leadership Skills. It’s a quick and dirty self-assessment exercise they conduct do under the below three areas. From the self-assessment, they will identify areas to work on to improve their Innovation Leadership Skills. Click below to see the full tool.
The Axiometrics online “thinking” exercise only takes 15 minutes to complete
You rearrange two sets of 18 statements – from most to least preferred
There are no questions
There are 6.4 quadrillion possible outcomes
There are over 85 different types of report and profiles
It does not attempt to classify you or label you as a ‘type’ e.g. ENTJ or Dominant
Is not discriminatory for age, sex, creed or culture and is validated by the EEOC
It can be used to look at current performance, but also to predict future performance
Has applications across the entire talent lifecycle, e.g., Recruitment, Personal and Professional Development, Retention, Succession Planning, Team-working
It can inform training needs analysis and the design of training and coaching focus
Rigorously define and measure decision-capacities against a culture benchmark
I hope you found this interesting. Please let me know what you think. If you ‘like’ or comment on this article, I’ll send you the excel versions of the tool which will be more user-friendly for you to use. If you would like a more accurate and objective understanding of how to build trust in virtual teams and assess Leadership Innovation skills, I’d be pleased to have a conversation to share more about my experience of leading virtual teams and the application of Axiometrics.
The common stereotypes of young Asian Muslim men in Bradford is that of boy racers, street gangs or turning to drugs.
TV Programs like ‘Hometown A Killing’ and ‘Lost Boys’ continue to feed into this narrative, but one young man wants to prove that, that’s not the reality of young Pakistani men in Bradford.
Fifteen-year-old Ibrahim Ai invited Asian Sunday to his brand-new store opening, based on Thornton Road in Bradford. The teenager is ambitious and wants to prove that Bradford’s young Asian men are hard-working and have an entrepreneurial side that’s never spoken about or highlighted.
From an early age Ibrahim has seen his father, Hasan Ali work hard and build a career in retail, with his most successful retail brand The Bazaar over the last decade. Ibrahim spent many evenings and weekends watching his mother and father graft away in retail both managing other market traders and their own café and market stall. Inspired by their work ethos and success, Ibrahim decided to start his own entrepreneurial journey.
The Titus Salt student wanted to own his own retail snack shop with a difference. He began following trends on social media site Instagram and there developed his spark for establishing his own snack shop – Snacks R Us
Snacks R Us offers a wide range of snacks and confectionery that is not commonly available on the high street. Items such as a large bag of Cheetos Flamin Hot, breakfast cereals like Oreo cereal, strawberry Krispies and Reese’s puffs and a large range of soft drinks such as Chuppa Chupps, Millions, Mountain Dew along with the very popular Chocomel are available at the shop. These can be purchased on a retail or wholesale basis.
Ibrahim was lucky he didn’t have to go far for investment, as both his parents loved his business plan and agreed to not only offer him some capital, but even provided their family owned retail premises, (which used to be a fabric store run by Hasan’s mum) to base his business from. In fact, the entire family is so proud of Ibrahim’s initiative that Ibrahim’s grandma (Hasan’s mum) also offered some investment for the business.
Loaded with the perfect investment and location, Ibrahim was further supported by his friends, who volunteered and help clean the place, and stack the shelves.
The only question was, how does a teenager juggle running the business alongside his studies, especially as he will be doing his GCSE’s this year.
“I work during weekends and most evenings, all other days my aunty helps to run the business, so that it doesn’t affect my studies” said Ibrahim.
Ibrahim’s family and friends have really got behind him, to help make his vision a success.
“The response has been great so far, as everyone has come forward to offer their help and help me make Snacks R Us a huge success. Ibrahim told Asian Sunday
“Some of my dad’s friends who have their own wholesale business have come forward to help out and get me the best deals, so I can offer them to my customers.”
“Having this business will make me more responsible and hopefully give me focus in life. I think my friends are also very excited at my venture and having them supporting me means, we all have something more meaningful to work for in our spare time, rather than be hanging out with the wrong crowds.”
“I want to be an example to other young Asian boys by showing that working hard is important and not only help set a good example for young Pakistani Muslim boys, but it will also be good for my future and my family.
Ibrahim’s father, Hasan Ali said: “This was all his idea, his mum and I simply supported him with some financial backing. My mother is also very proud of Ibrahim and is supporting him in a generous way.
“I am really proud though that my son is now running his business in the same premises that my mum ran her fabric business from. As a young child I remember spending my time in this shop helping my mum and now I will be spending some time here helping my son.”
Asian Sunday wishes young Ibrahim and his new venture Snacks R Us all the best for the future.
Snacks R Us is open Mon – Friday 7am – 8pm, Saturdays 12noon – 8pm and can be found on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.
Popular world foods producer Regal Food is revealing a new design for its online shop. The family-run business started out as a supplier for Yorkshire corner shops; it focused on foods popular with the UK’s South Asian community, before expanding into World Food brands. The new e-commerce website is the first part of the company’s ambitious business plans for 2020 growth.
Regal contacted Leeds marketing agency Electric to create a new website; it needed to be a fit for purpose new e-commerce site which uses modern design and makes it easy for customers to buy products like Regal’s famous Bombay Mix and Cake Rusks in a few clicks. It also allows Regal to run promotions around key events like Diwali and Ramadan. All of these features play a key part in the company’s growth plans.
“We’re very pleased with our new website, and very excited about the new business opportunities it offers us”, said Waqar Younis, Sales Director for Regal Food Products.
“We’ve got big business goals for 2020, which are still under wraps at this time. However, this new website is the first step towards fulfilling our new vision for the company. It allows us to dial up our presence in the gifting market—and to raise awareness of our broad World Food brands range—while still championing our South Asian favourites. We know people want to find their favourite foods as easily as possible, and are open to being inspired along the way. We hope our customers find our new website easier than ever to use, and that they enjoy the new promotions and product ranges we now offer. And we also can’t wait to reveal the next stages of our 2020 business plans.”
Manager Bobby Patel said: “We are a fine dining restaurant this is our passion, this is our root and to convert to a takeaway was very daunting, something Minal and I wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do. But we felt there was a responsibility something where we needed to be able to potentially save our business and to be able to engage with the community.
