Asif and Abada Akhtar, who run Premier Smeaton Stores in Kirkcaldy, think what they do locally is ‘normal’, but for the community, it has been extra ordinary, and fetched them the Local Hero Award at the 2021 Asian Trader Awards.
The Asian Trader Local Hero Award, supported by Walkers Sensations, acknowledges the role played by store-owners during the pandemic and beyond, shining light on the most innovative and magnanimous manner they responded for their customers and community.
The Smeaton Stores was always in the family, and as a child, his parents would take him to the store – “how Asian families usually do,” he remarks. So he grew up helping out in the store, but he was in fact planning a career away from retail, going to Aberdeen University to study architecture.
Then, unfortunately, his father died of cancer, as he finished his degree.
“At that time, I just felt that I had to take over the business. I've not got any other siblings, and it's just my mum left. So yeah, I just took over and have been, you know, 21 years full time now,” he says.
He admits that he didn’t had the passion for retail when growing up, and the initial plan was to give a couple years to sort it out and then go back to architecture. “But no, 21 years, I'm still here. So of course the passion grew during that time,” he says, with a smile.
He was engaged to Abada at the time, and they tied the knot as his father wanted to see him married before he passed away. Since then, it’s a husband-and-wife team at the Smeaton store.
Of little things
Spending so long in the same community – “you kind of really know almost everyone by name, and not just as customers, you become friends too,” Asif says - had a huge impact on what role the store plays in Smeaton. When they took the store over the family store, the area wasn’t in good shape at all.
“Once the Scottish Government did a survey and it was described as one of the top five most deprived areas in Scotland,” he says. “So you can imagine problems that bring- antisocial behavior, drug abuse, alcohol abuse, domestic abuse, racism, everything like that.”
Asif recollects that he didn't even like going to the store, when he was growing up, adding “those were the reasons why, may be.”
“In fact, for the first year or two we couldn’t even open the shutters because the windows would just get smashed and we had graffiti everywhere,” he went on.
They quickly decided they had a responsibility to do what they could to help push the community forward and bring them together.
“You just kind of educate yourself on how to handle certain situations. But I think the key was integrating ourselves into the community even more than what we already were,” he explains.
The Scottish government started pumping money to rejuvenate the place, and the store also started doing their little bits.
“Just by doing really small things, like sponsoring local football teams, but from the small stuff, the larger stuff naturally came, it just naturally got more integrated into the area,” he says.
“Initially we didn't have a playground here. So the council gave some funding, we put in some funds as well. Things like that and you've got the playground up and running, small things that accumulated into bigger things.”
Indeed, it’s not without reason they say that great things are made up of little things!
They work with local council to provide temporary accommodation for vulnerable families, and the last three properties they handed in to the council are being used to house Afghan refugees.
“That came completely by accident,” Asif explains.
He owned another building in the area, which housed a pub. The venue closed during the pandemic, but it has been attracting lots of complaints from the residents.
“So when the lease was up for the pub, we consciously decided that we weren't going to renew the lease, to tackle this problem, and not to have that as a pub anymore,” he says. “But then that left us with a problem as what we do with that empty building.”
He initially offered the building to the council, hoping they could use it as a community centre of sorts, but they didn't have the funding to do that. So, he converted it into two 3-bedroom houses, which the council used as a temporary accommodation for vulnerable families.
“I gave those houses at a minimum rent, and gave those two houses to the council to use that for temporary accommodation for families, like those who are struggling to pay the mortgage, that they could use it as an in between before they could find them a permanent solution,” he says.
“That's what I started from. From those two houses, I went to three to four to five, and that's what we use them for. We hand them to the council and the council use as temporary commendation.”
They also work closely with local schools, and have been instrumental in addressing the persistent absence, after they observed children coming in and out of the store all day, every day, not just at lunchtime or before or after the school.
“And we're thinking, why aren’t you at school and one of the reasons was that the local high school had a really strict uniform policy, that if you don't have a school uniform, then they sent you home, which was kind of a bit too strict,” he says.
Premier Smeaton Stores Kirkcaldy
They decided that they could do something about it and set up a uniform initiative at the Balwearie High School. “We piled in, donate some money to buy stock. So if they were short of a tie, they will be sent to the office and they would get that tie to wear,” he says. “The sole purpose was they don't get sent away from school back home.”
The initiative took off very well and soon they found themselves increasingly involved with the school, starting a breakfast club, which is a rarity for a high school.
“The high school in particular that we were talking about has a quarter of the children live on the child poverty line, and so they are going to school without breakfast. That's why we thought we can maybe do something here too,” he says.
Last year the school won Scotland's best breakfast club recognition, awarded by Kellogg’s. “That was another great achievement,” Asif says.
They also work with Kirkcaldy High School, donating ice cream and refreshments annually for their end of year awards.
“We are just trying to integrate as much as possible. And we enjoy doing that,” he says. “We were thinking, when we do finally go into retirement, that's the type of work that we kind of do, maybe to go into volunteering, or charity work. That's our aim at the moment and we'd like focusing on just now.”
Fundraising push
In fact, they have their own officially registered charity and raised in excess of £75,000 to date. Two schools, four children’s homes and a mental health unit in their vicinity have been beneficiaries of their various initiatives, among others.
“That again kind of just started by accident,” Asif reveals. “There was a regular customer who came in all the time, but then he got diagnosed with a cancer. Then all he really wanted was – because he has never been on holiday with his family – all he really wanted was like a family holiday.”
They did a small fundraising to try and raise the money, so they we could just send them on holiday. But that fundraising wasn't really small, and they were able to raise over £3400.
“That's when we started this fundraising thing. We thought we could do that for other local good causes, so we would do another fundraiser. And that reached like£ 8000, then like £15,000. But when you start hitting that kind of figure, I was advised that you need to like have something official. That's why we then set up that charity, so that everything's legit, and black and white,” he explains.
And, if they ever doubted how much the local community appreciates what they do, then a special day last year brought it all home. At the time when people would stand outside their houses and clap the NHS staff, their community gathered outside the store one evening and clapped them. “There were no dry eyes that night. It meant the world to us – and our community means the world to us,” he says.
Always up to date
For them, integrating into the community also meant maintaining a top-notch store. When he took over, it was an unaffiliated store, and he joined a symbol group and refurbished it over the years. Even during the pandemic, they continued to develop the store with more refits, totally overhauling the counter area, adding more refrigeration, developing the food to go are and so on.
“At the end of the day, it is a store after all and it’s important that it’s the best store it can be for our customers who relied on us more than ever,” he says.
“Every year, we just try to keep it fresh and up to date and kind of future-proof. Plus it creates that excitement for the customers and ourselves too.”
He adds that nowadays retailers need to seriously look at the energy efficient chillers and the LED lights to reduce the outgoings. And, these are the next steps he plans for the store, as utility bills, which has more than doubles, is one of the most worrying things for him now.
“I think I'm going to be replacing my soft drinks chillers with more energy efficient chillers next, and see how to reduce some overheads and [improve on] sustainability,” he adds.
His favourite approach to re-investing in the store is talking to retailers around him. “They might have already tried something that you're thinking of trying and just get feedback from them. Tango Ice Blast machine, things like that, for example, might not work everywhere. But if you know retailers around you, go and speak to the retailer, and they are usually more than happy to talk to you,” he suggests, stressing the importance of investing in store even amid the current cost of living pressures.
“Things are getting harder for retailers, so I can understand why people might not want to make any sort of investment. But then as you become stagnant, you may not progress,” he warns. “Add something onto your offer.”
He, however, notes that availability is a key issue just now, “sunflower oil is becoming a bit of a problem” and more significantly finds consumer confidence falling.
“I think consumer confidence just isn't there. This past year, especially seasonal activities, for example, Christmas, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day was quiet for me,” he rues. “It’s a worrying situation just now, but you keep competitive, you offer what people are looking for.”
Retaining custom
In fact, it’s this attitude that held him in good stead during the pandemic - “when the independents everywhere tend to shine” - and helped him maintain sales even after the restrictions eased.
“We source products from multiple wholesalers, multiple people, multiple companies, and I was sourcing product all over from Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh. Toilet rolls, for example, I was going to Aberdeen for ordering them. You could source toilet paper from everywhere at that time where the supermarkets weren't able to do that. We made sure that the product that the customers needed was in-store ready for them,” he tells of his pandemic experience, adding that he has been able to convert a chunk of those lifeline shoppers to regulars.
“I've got people who aren't actually regulars, who aren't from my area, who still now visit the store,” he says.
On the other side, he has also retained his relations with local suppliers developed during those days.
“Things like eggs and bread, it’s difficult to source from the main wholesale supplier, so you've got the local people on board and they never let you down,” he says. “So, when supplies came back to normal a bit, we consciously kept those local suppliers, along with other suppliers.”
Talking on another big pandemic trend, he feels that convenience retailers should be thinking about doing home deliveries, opining that the pandemic has just accelerated what was going to be the ‘next big thing’. .
“Because everyone else is going to be doing it and if you're the only one that's not doing it around your area, you should be thinking about introducing it,” he says. “I think that is the way forward, like an add-on business to your store.”
Social media is already a big thing in retail, but he observes that the phenomenon has drastically shifted the field of competition for local stores.
“Before maybe you used to compete against the shop around you. But now you're kind of competing with the entire town with social media,” he says. “So jump on that fast, early enough, and promote that.”
And, he would like to stress on the fact that there’s no short cut to success in the convenience retail.
“I think retailers sometimes expect too much too quick. And it doesn't work like that, especially in our current climate,” he notes.
“We've been there for like 21 years now. And it takes a very long time to make your business successful, and perseverance and hard work.”
Local shops will face significant new pressures as a result of today’s Budget, the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has warned.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves' budget's impact will be felt unevenly across the UK’s 50,000 convenience stores, with some measures such as business rate relief and the increased employment allowance mitigating costs for smaller independent stores, while providing no help for chains and larger independent businesses.
The key measures for local shops announced by the Chancellor, and the costs for local shops associated with them, are:
National Living Wage to increase to £12.21 per hour
National Minimum Wage (18-20 rate) to increase to £10 per hour
Cost to the convenience sector next year: £7.739bn (increase of £513m)
Employers’ National Insurance Contributions to rise to 15 per cent
Threshold for Employers’ National Insurance contributions to fall to £5,000 per year
Employment Allowance to rise to £10,500 a year
Cost to the convenience sector next year: £397m (increase of £85m)
Retail and hospitality rate relief reduced from 75 per cent to 40 per cent
Small business multiplier frozen for 2025/26
Cost to the convenience sector: £267m (increase of £68m)
Total cost of main announcements (year-on-year difference): £666m
ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said: “The cold hard facts are that the measures announced in the past 24 hours have added two-thirds of a billion pounds to the direct cost base of the UK’s local shops. At a time when trade is tough and operating costs are stubbornly high, this will be challenging for our members to absorb and there will be some casualties on high streets and in villages and estates across the country.
“Not all shops will be impacted the same. The smallest retailers, with low NICs bills and lower rateable values for their shops, will benefit from the welcome increase in the employment allowance and the retention of 40% of the retail, hospitality and leisure business rates relief. Retailers with a larger store, a number of sites or those operating a chain will receive limited benefit from these mitigations, and this will impact their ability to invest and to continue to offer services in the communities they serve.
The following additional measures were announced by the Chancellor in the Budget speech today:
Flat rate levy on vaping liquids from October 2026 of £2.20 per 10ml
Fuel duty frozen and the 5p cut extended for another year
A new commitment to tackling shop theft and funding directed to tackling organised gangs
Lowman continued: “The Chancellor’s commitment to tackling shop theft will be warmly welcomed by our members, but they are interested only in action and in crime against their stores and their colleagues being tackled effectively. We stand ready to help implement a new, and better-funded strategy to stop shop theft, abuse and violence against our members.”
Parliament is to launch an inquiry into delays in compensation settlements for sub postmasters affected by the Horizon scandal.
The newly-formed Business and Trade Select Committee will call ministers, subpostmasters and their lawyers to give evidence next week with a second session to follow in mid-November. The Committee’s chair, Liam Byrne MP told ITV News that there was “definitely a delay” in people coming forward for payment.
“What we’re hearing from subpostmasters is that if there is an argument about how much should be paid out, the first offer is made quite quickly but if there’s a negotiation, that negotiation is dragging.
“We on the committee are going to batter away at this, week in, week out, until it is job done. All of us on our committee are frankly horrified and outraged by how long this has taken and we’re just not going to give up, ” he said.
Sir Alan Bates, the Post Office campaigner and chair of the Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance, is expected to be invited to give evidence. Earlier this month, Sir Alan states that his own claim had not been addressed and that he had written to prime minister Sir Keir Starmer asking for his intervention.
“Like many of the groups, my claim has not been completed. It’s ridiculous. I am one of just many in this position. This is why I wrote to the Prime Minister at the start of October, asking that he instruct the department to ensure that all claims – and I’m talking about in the GLO group, the original 555 – have been completed by March next year," he said.
This comes weeks after the Post Office's outgoing CEO agreed the government is using the company as a "shield" over compensation schemes. Nick Read, who resigned last month, was giving evidence at the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry for the second day, with a focus on delays to victims' financial redress.
He also admitted that the compensation process has been "overly bureaucratic" and expressed "deep regret" that the Post Office had not lived up to delivering "speedy and fair redress".
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Bacup Wine and Convenience shop, 34 Burnley Road, Bacup.
A Rossendale shop has had a licence bid rejected after repeatedly selling vapes to children and having illegal products on its premises.
Management at the Ibra Superstore at 34 Burnley Road, Bacup, have shown ‘no regard’ for children’s protection and safety, and have insufficient controls for licensing, Rossendale councillors have ruled.
Ibrahim Mohammad, director of the Ibra Superstore, had recently applied to Rossendale Council for a new premises licence. But the borough’s licensing sub-committee rejected his bid after a meeting which heard allegations from the police and trading standards officers.
The Burnley Road shop has been subject to various licensing changes and concerns in recent years. In the past, it was called Bacup Wines.
Ibrahim Mohammad, the applicant, attended the Rossendale licensing sub-committe meeting with his father,Amin Mohammad. Also there was PC Mick Jones, of Lancashire Constabulary, and Jason Middleton of Lancashire Trading Standards. Councillor Bob Bauld attended as an observer.
Mr Mohammad wanted a premises license for alcohol sales and opening hours from 8am to 11pm, seven days a week. He already had a personal licence. He said the Bacup shop would install a CCTV system, keep an incident log and a refusals record, check customers’ ages, display information about staff and give them regular training.
Trading standards officer Jason Middleton said Ibra Superstore Ltd was incorporated as a company in April 2023. Since then, trading standards had received 11 complaints about under-age sales and carried out visits.
Breaches included non-compliant vapes being found which broke a 2ml limit on the quantity of nicotine-containing liquid, no age checks and no information on display.
During one visit, Amin Mohammad tried to leave with a bag containing 10 illegal vapes. In test purchases by trading standards, an ‘Elf Bar’ vape was sold to a 14-year-old by Amin Mohammad and an illegal Hayati Pro Max vape to a 13-year-old by Ibrahim Mohammad. The shop claimed a phone call distracted staff during the 13-year-old’s purchase and illegal vapes came from ‘a man in car’.
Councillors heard different speakers, looked at written reports and also some video footage from the applicant. But they rejected the premises licence bid.
Giving their reasons, they stated: “There was a repeated history and pattern of behaviour regarding under-age sales of age-restricted items, such as tobacco products and vapes to children. You must not sell vapes to anyone under the age of 18. This is a criminal offence which the council takes very seriously.
“It is clear you breached the law by failing a test purchase operation in which you sold an illegal vape to an under-age child. The sub-committee feels that you have no regard to the protection and safety of children.
“The sub-committee feels that there is insufficient management control at the premises. There is no credible system to prevent under-age sales of age-restricted products and no measures in place to avoid harm to children and to prevent crime and disorder
“Therefore, given the number of incidents, the circumstances surrounding the incidents and the fact that the matter involves safeguarding issues relating to young, vulnerable minors, we consider that the seriousness of the incidents and the crimes committed against young children undermines the licensing objectives to prevent crime and disorder, and protect children from harm.”
The shop has the right of appeal to a magistrates court within 21 days of the date of the notice.
SPAR North of England retailer Dara Singh Randhawa’s family store has been awarded £100,000 of free stock after hitting all his targets since moving to the symbol.
Dara and his family, who have their SPAR store in Patrington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, joined SPAR through its association with James Hall & Co. Ltd in August 2023 having taken the decision to maximise the store’s potential.
It is a decision they have not looked back on, with sales increasing by up to 25% and margins also showing significant uplift in the last 12 months.
Key to the store’s improved performance is the complete overhaul of products available in-store, particularly the fresh food range, to better support people who live in Patrington and the surrounding area.
A new store layout and refrigeration, better Food To Go and meal deal options, a coffee machine, and a Calippo slush machine were also installed during a major refurbishment prior to launch.
Dara said: “Our move to SPAR has been excellent. We have seen fantastic sales uplift and the support from the team at James Hall & Co. Ltd has been brilliant. The £100,000 of free stock is the cherry on the cake.
“We have been very impressed with the Price Locked promotions, in particular. These give customers confidence to do bigger shops with us as they see value on our shelves and the products at the same prices for longer.
“At times over the summer when tourists and visitors to the area add trade, we have seen sales £6,000 a week higher than our average. This is against a backdrop of the popular caravan park in the village being closed almost all year.
“We are really pleased with the position we are in, and we will be looking to achieve more in 2025.”
Peter Dodding, Sales Director at James Hall & Co. Ltd and Chairman of the SPAR Northern Guild, said: “Congratulations to Dara and the Randhawa family on hitting their targets and earning £100,000 of free stock.
“We recognise switching brand is a big decision for a retailer which is why this isn’t a gimmick, and we offer this to all retailers who join the SPAR family with James Hall & Co. Ltd.
“As well as our £100,000 incentive, we also offer retailers the chance to achieve up to an additional £5,000 of free stock if they successfully refer a friend.
“These opportunities provide additional motivation to retailers alongside the comprehensive benefits that joining the SPAR brand brings with it.”
James Hall & Co. Ltd is a fifth-generation family business which serves a network of independent SPAR retailers and company-owned SPAR stores across Northern England six days a week from its base at Bowland View in Preston.
The government has on Wednesday announced its acceptance of the Low Pay Commission’s (LPC) recommendations on the rates of the National Minimum Wage (NMW), including the National Living Wage (NLW).
The rates which will apply from 1 April 2025 are as follows:
NMW Rate
Increase (£)
Percentage increase
National Living Wage (21 and over)
£12.21
£0.77
6.7
18-20 Year Old Rate
£10.00
£1.40
16.3
16-17 Year Old Rate
£7.55
£1.15
18.0
Apprentice Rate
£7.55
£1.15
18.0
Accommodation Offset
£10.66
£0.67
6.7
The recommended NLW rate is expected to equal two-thirds of median earnings and to have the highest real value in the history of the UK’s minimum wage. The increase in the 18-20 Year Old Rate narrows the gap between that and the NLW, in anticipation of the adult rate being extended to 18 year olds in future years.
“The government have been clear about their ambitions for the National Minimum Wage and its importance in supporting workers’ living standards. At the same time, employers have had to deal with the adult rate rising over 20 per cent in two years, and the challenges that has created alongside other pressures to their cost base,” Baroness Philippa Stroud, chair of the LPC, said.
“It is our job to balance these considerations, ensuring the NLW provides a fair wage for the lowest-paid workers while taking account of economic factors. These rates secure a real-terms pay increase for the lowest-paid workers. Young workers will see substantial increases in their pay floor, making up some of the ground lost against the adult rate over time.”
Stroud admitted that the data show some signs of employers finding it harder to adapt to minimum wage increases.
“The tightening of the labour market since the pandemic has unwound, but the overall picture is similar to 2019. The economy is expected to grow over the next year, although productivity growth remains subdued,” she noted.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:
Good work and fair wages are in the interest of British business as much as British workers. This government is changing people’s lives for the better because we know that investing in the workforce leads to better productivity, better resilience and ultimately a stronger economy primed for growth.
The recommended increase in the 16-17 Year Old Rate restores that rate to its original value relative to the adult minimum wage. In line with previous recommendations, the Apprentice Rate will remain equal to the 16-17 Year Old Rate.