The Asian Trader Independent Retailer Award, supported by Booker Wholesale, recognises an entrepreneur who has built a successful convenience business and an outstanding store which has seen spectacular results in both turnover and customer numbers. And in Pete Saleem, winner of the 2021 edition, we meet a retailer who fits the bill to a tee, with his immaculate shop: Premier Broadway Circle in Blyth, Northumberland.
Pete merged two spaces into a modern convenience store in January last year, and sales immediately shot up by 40 per cent. As the development work took place during lockdown, he continued to serve customers from a container parked outside.
The shop was extended by 500 sq ft to 1,500 sq ft, with the increased space entirely dedicated to alcohol, including the creation of a beer cave. They stock 126 different varieties of gin, possibly the biggest range of any independent shop in Northumberland.
“As a family, we have been trading on the same parade of shops since 1988 but it was clear to me that to take our business to the next level what we needed was a modern convenience store,” Pete says.
Premier Broadway Circle in Blyth, Northumberland
They had two nearby shops, one with an alcohol license and the other, without. The joke in the town went that they were becoming an “inconvenience store”, says Pete, laughing, “Because you buy a loaf of bread from one shop, but for a bottle of wine you walk to the other. It wasn't good. So we needed to integrate the two businesses,” he says.
It was to be a serious investment, and in fact they started the planning about five years ago, in 2017. “There was a lot of work that went in behind the scenes before we even put anything out in the shop. That was probably the easiest part. The hardest was the preparation,” he explains.
“It's not a huge shop, but in order to do this, the sales that we were predicting, we needed to create a bit more space. And that's what we did, by creating the beer cave.”
What happens in Vegas …
The beer cave is an idea he brought home from the US city where the Saleem brothers – six of them – went for a birthday party. “On visiting Las Vegas, it became very apparent that everything is beer cave,” he says.
“We got off the plane, and were transported to one of these places to have a look. And I said to the boys, ‘I'm gonna have one of these in the shop,’ and they just thought I was cracking a joke. But as soon as I saw that concept in Las Vegas, straightaway I knew I needed to have have that, because it gave us a unique selling point. I was getting to the stage where I was sick of hearing, ‘get this for this price and go to Morrison's for that price. But they can't get those prices chilled. They don't do it. It gives us a USP and if nothing else, it makes your shop a destination.”
As part of the refit, they also created a new food-to-go section from scratch, including Costa Coffee, f’real milkshakes, fwip ice cream, Jolly Rancher, Hershey's Freeze and Tango Ice Blast.
“It’s a new way of bringing shoppers into the store. We’ve gone from half a metre of chilled food to seven metres. Now we are selling fresh pizzas, ready meals and all the ingredients for a family supper. Basket spend has improved because shoppers are enjoying the benefit of doing all their shopping under one roof,” he says.
Booker brought to his attention the fact that food-to-go was a huge growth sector, and that he needed to be involved, Pete admits, adding that the advice has really paid off.
“I never visited a Costa, but the Costa has been a fantastic asset to the business; f’real has been a huge hit; Tango Ice Blast creates such a focal point, a destination for people to come to,” he says. “That's where the market is going. And we need to go in that direction.”
All about planning
Discussing his experience of the refit, Pete stresses the importance of planning. “If you go into something blind, you could end up digging a big hole for yourself,” he notes, “It's all about the planning: planning, preparation, making sure your funding is in place.”
He says a retailer needs to have a vision of what they want to do, the know-how and the correct work colleagues when it comes to builders, shop-fitters, fridge engineers, electricians, plumbers and CCTV. Pete worked with his own contacts as they have contractors who work for them on a daily basis.
“My planning was so detailed, every contractor was at [a] meeting and I said, ‘Look, we've got 29 days to do this. We are closing on the first of January and will open on the 30th.’ And everyone looked at each other and said ‘Are you for real, there's so much to do.’”
Their concern was justified as they had to go back to bare walls and floors, putting in new flooring and ceilings and everything in between.
“And I said we'll have to work on the clock, work collectively as a team: we have to get this done and we have no choice in the matter. And you know what, it was because if that organisation, that communication that we achieved what we did in 29 days,” he says.
Keeping it local
The Covid-19 pandemic pushed local products into the limelight, alongside the “shop local” trend. The range of local products, including bread, pies, sandwiches, pasties, cream cakes, eggs, fresh meat and frozen curries, has been another USP of Pete’s store, and as these products are displayed better in the new shop, sales of local lines have doubled, he says.
“We've always supported our local produce, our local suppliers, it's always been important for us. When we did the refit, we made sure that all this local produce had its place in-store. They got more of a facing in the new store than they had in the past,” he says.
He also credits Booker for making space for local products during the refit.
“Our relationships with other local businesses have held us in good stead over the years, and Booker recognise the value of this. During the refit, Booker asked us which local suppliers we worked with. They were all allocated a space in the plan, and it was great to know that our wholesale supplier was able to see the bigger picture and work with us to make the shop as attractive as possible,” he says.
Connecting on the doorstep
Even before the pandemic, the Saleems used to offer a home delivery service, though it was rather community-related back then.
“My father and my mother, God bless them, they always had a list of customers who they would deliver to because they were housebound, or they couldn't get out or they weren't as mobile,” he explains.
“They had about 16 people on that list. Then the pandemic came. And to be honest with you, that list grew to about 34 during the pandemic, but we have quickly seen that there was a requirement for home delivered, not just for the elderly, because people were wanting to stay safe.”
They went live with Snappy Shopper when they re-opened the store, in February last year, and Pete says its growing week on week, even after 15 months.
“It's a huge growth sector. We now have six drivers. We've actually bought an electric vehicle. We quickly recognised that there's a lot of talk of climate change at the moment. And it's not going to get any better unless we do something about it. That's why we invested in this electric vehicle. We use that for deliveries and the customers really appreciate it,” he says.
They also stick to the delivery time of 30 minutes, which offers them a point of difference compared with the supermarkets’ offering.
It has been a heavy investment, he agrees, and initially drivers weren’t always busy. “But, everything has to start somewhere,” he notes. “Now it's a business that in itself is very sustainable. And it's a big part of our business now.”
From the list of 16 his parents used to look after, they now have over 600 customers they deliver to at least once a week. That’s the scale of where it's going, and Pete attributes this to the changes in shopper habits driven by the pandemic.
“I think that a lot of people shifted to home delivery probably because of a confidence thing, because Covid was dangerous. Now it's almost away hopefully but people's buying habits haven't changed. They haven't reverted to the multiples,” he says.
Part of the reason would be the face-to-face engagement that they now extend to their customers’ doorsteps.
“I would personally, like my father, go and do the deliveries, if the drivers are getting busy,” he says. “We have to ensure that we maintain the level of service. This is really key, by the way,” he nods.
“Having that face to face and having that product delivered to them, as they need it within 30 minutes, was really well accepted by our customers, and they really appreciate it. A lot of people that work for me will drop at the doorstep, stand back and say hello. We will connect on the doorstep.”
He says the service needs hard work, but he finds it personally rewarding. “Those people are still buying from us now. They can easily go anywhere else. But they do remember the fact that we were there for them, when they needed us,” he says.
Ace-ing social media
The store is strong on social media, particularly Facebook: “In the demographic area that we are situated, it's all about Facebook,” Pete says – where they push their offers and services like home delivery to their followers.
“I think it's one of those things that you've got to work on. You can't just do it once and then just ‘oh, I’ll do it maybe again in few days’ time’. You've got to be continuous,” he says. “And in order to get your message out there, you have to push your brand; you have to put yourself at the forefront of people's minds.”
He says they get to know the power of Facebook to drive sales whenever they have new products to offer. Recently they announced the launch on Gordon's Cherry Gin on their page, and the bottles flew off the shelves within an hour.
“That was all down to Facebook, if we didn't have that tool, potentially we wouldn't get that custom,” he says, noting that Facebook gives them a mechanism to amplify what they have always worked on in the past: word of mouth.
“Those things are really cool. If the customer can come in and get whatever they want from your store, that gives you a good reputation. It's good. If the word of mouth is not positive, the customers won't come to your shop. So those things are really important,” he sign off.
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.