Exclusive: British Corner Shop’s big comeback

When the expats’ favourite, British Corner Shop – which made traditional and much-loved Brit skus available abroad – went into administration, gasps were heard around the globe from homesick Brits who were used to rely on this e-commerce platform.

From the brink of a total collapse to a global comeback, British Corner Shop has now risen like a phoenix. Under its new owners Harvey Hayer and Amar Dulay, it is thriving and ready to expand into wholesale as well.

For this cousin duo from Newcastle, British Corner Shop’s debacle presented a moment to not only turbojet their retail career but also to venture into the promising world of e-commerce.

In an exclusive conversation with Asian Trader, Hayer shared insights into how their paths crossed with British Corner Shop and their future plans.

“My cousin Amar and I both finished our degrees and started helping in our family-run convenience store in Newcastle. Though we liked working in it, within three to four years, a sense of restlessness started settling in both of us.

“It was a decent business, but it wasn't growing fast enough for us. I wanted quick growth and was struggling with several ideas. I initially thought about launching a chain of shops, but it was time-taking and difficult to find good locations, so I started leaning more towards online.

“We explored various propositions, from launching an on-demand grocery delivery service to setting up our own website to start exporting British foods.”

The pivotal moment for the cousins, however, came in January last year when British Corner Shop ceased to trade for the second time. Just a year earlier, in March 2023, it had been rescued by private investor Rcapital.

When disaster struck again, Hayer and Dulay seized the chance. In March last year, the cousin-duo snapped up the business’s intellectual property – including website domains, social media channels and trademarks – from administrators.

British Corner Shop

“British Corner Shop was quite a big business, but they were struggling. When we bought it, it took us about six months to put it all together. It was suddenly a much bigger project than we anticipated, but we adapted, and by September we were up and running.”

British Corner Shop is a popular e-commerce platform that sells more than 6,000 products from Britain’s most loved brands overseas. With about five million British expats around the world, the possibilities of growth are endless.

“We started small, exporting only to the US to ensure we got everything right before expanding.

“Between September and December last year, we generated £3 million in sales, processing around 3,000 orders a month with an average order value of £150.”

Hayer and Dulay are now gearing up for wider global expansion.

The re-imagined British Corner Shop offers a carefully curated selection of top British brands whose name resonate widely, thus evoking a deep sense of nostalgia among expats.

Heinz Beans, Percy Pig from Marks and Spence and Warburtons are some of the top hits among expats, says Harvey: “It’s nostalgia at play here”.

He said, “Our tech team is looking at new territory; we are going to open to the rest of the world in April. We will have presence in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Middle East, though this one is very well served already.

“In the next couple years, British Corner Shop will be a platform of top British brands, making them accessible to people who move abroad, like a thread of connection back home.”

Since the relaunch, British Corner Shop has hit the right spot. Following some “extremely busy” months with growing demand from US shoppers propelling its expansion, the cousin-duo recently expanded from a 3,000-square-foot warehouse to a 25,000-square-foot facility in Gateshead, so Hayer and Dular are venturing into wholesale as well.

“One day, I was packing an order, and it suddenly struck me that there must be shops around the world that would like to stock such British goods,” said Hayer.

“I started doing some research and found that there were only two big companies in the UK doing that.

“I thought, why not us? Expanding into wholesale will boost our turnover and give us better buying power, allowing us to offer more competitive prices and ranges.”

British Corner Shop

Wholesaling is somewhat a similar ball game but with a completely different twist, though the cousin-duo seems to be well-prepared.

To drive this initiative, they have brought in industry expert Angus Dinsdale as head of wholesale exports. Dinsdale, formerly head of procurement and reprocessing at Ramsden International, had also spent a decade at Liverpool-based Smylies.

“We are going to target small shops around the world and offer them a mixed basket of popular products. We will also reach out to all the British consulates around the globe since they all have little shops in the premises.

“British Corner Shop is an established name, and we believe it will work well in both retail and wholesale,” he said.

However, operating a global business comes with its own set of challenges. And primary among which is geopolitical changes.

“Europe is becoming increasingly difficult. Right now, we only export a small vegan range there, which contradicts our mission of offering a broad selection,” Hayer stated.

Yet, with a strong team navigating regulations and tariffs, the cousins remain ahead of the curve.

Over the next five years, Hayer and Dulay plan to expand exponentially while acquiring additional e-commerce businesses.

With an ambitious vision, a growing global presence, and a relentless drive to innovate, Hayer and Dulay are turning British Corner Shop into a powerhouse.

As they scale up, they seem to remain committed to making sure no Brit abroad has to suffer a craving for their beloved products back home.