September marks the 60th anniversary of World Food wholesaler Wanis
1964 was a year for the history books: Muhammad Ali became the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World, America was in the throes of “Beatlemania” … and Wanis opened its first shop in London’s old East End.
Mr and Mrs Wadhwani – or “Wani” as they affectionally became known – were the parents of Kapil and Sanjay, the current Directors. It was then that they took the first steps in the family business that, after six decades of long working hours, stress and sacrifice, has become one of Europe’s leading World Foods distributors, employing over 200 people and creating thousands of jobs and business opportunities worldwide.
Mr and Mrs Wadhwani in 1984
Proudly taking its name from founder Tulsidas Wadhwani (aka Mr Wani), Wanis began when he started to import small quantities of exotic foods from Africa and the Caribbean to sell to London’s newly-arrived migrant community in his retail store in Holloway.
It wasn’t long before the enterprise outgrew the original site, and Mr Wanis relocated to Commercial Street in the early 1970s, close to the site of the original Spitalfields Market, which at the time sold an unparalleled range of exotic fruits and vegetables, drawing in customers from across the UK. Mr Wani’s wife and his two sons then joined the firm, making it a real family business.
By the early 1980s, the business had grown further and acquired a storage warehouse which became the UK’s one-stop shop for specialist ethnic food before relocating again in the 1990s to even larger premises in East London. Wanis began delivering goods to its customers in the UK and in 1994, also identifying a huge opportunity to export British and global brands around the world – and the export side of the business was launched.
Today, Wanis is one of the largest specialist food and drink wholesalers in Europe with an annual turnover exceeding £140,000,000, servicing all UK trade sectors in addition to 35 overseas markets across Europe, West Africa, The Caribbean and the USA.
With sites in East London and Milton Keynes, Wanis commissioned a new £20million state-of-the-art distribution centre in Rainham in 2021 as part of their long-term growth plans. Constructed on a brownfield site in Essex, it was completed in April 2022, significantly increasing the capacity of the distribution and delivery function of the business. The Rainham site features dedicated facilities which position the company to further grow the export side of the business including unique stock locations, bulk container handling, picking and racking.
The business is now led by Mr Wadhwani’s two sons – Kapil (Business Development Director) and Sanjay (Managing Director) They are supported on the board by George Phillips (Commercial Director), Adam Reader (Finance Director) and Alam Ameer (Operations Director)
Wanis is Europe’s leading World Food and Drink Wholesalers. Foods of the world have been a star performer in grocery over the past decade with consistent double-digit year-on-year growth. With increasing diversity among our population, allied to Brits continuing to embrace an ever-wider range of cuisines, this doesn’t look to be slowing down anytime soon. With the widest range of World Food brands and products available in the UK, they have seen significant growth in volume based on the trend seen from some 10,000 products stocked by Wanis across all categories and cuisines. World Foods is such a broad category, from Caribbean hero-products like Jerk Seasoning to West African staples such as Fufu Flour and South Asian basmati rice, as well as drinks, snacks and so much more that it is impossible to cover the entire category!
Among their 200-strong team across all the Wanis sites, they number 28 nationalities and ethnicities with 25 languages spoken, making them a truly inclusive employer. The business serves many communities across the UK and further afield, and it is through having members of these communities in the Wanis family that they feel they are really able to connect with the range of people who are ultimately their customers.
Wanis believes community starts with their team and strongly believe in the ethos that the staff are all part of the “Wanis family”. They value everyone equally, and this is illustrated by the results of their annual employee satisfaction survey.
They know each other’s children and spouses and regularly celebrate together at various events, one of the most popular being the summer BBQ where staff are encouraged to bring their families to a day of games, fun, music and food.
They are proud to be a valued part of the local community, both as an employer and in their work with local stakeholders such as Counsellors, MPs and Mayors to support their initiatives.
Their new warehouse in Rainham has resulted in more sales space in their Leyton Cash and Carry, including a large range of frozen products.
Charity
To celebrate their 60th year Wanis is donating £60,000 of grants to charities and community groups. They are also hosting a party for their suppliers, customers, and partners to say thank you to those who have helped the company to grow over the years.
One of the charities Wanis supports in Waltham Forest embodies the firm’s philosophy in its cross-community, inter-faith approach to tackling poverty, cultural deprivation and isolation in the borough: PL84U provides hot meals, companionship, food and clothes to the elderly, homeless and those in need with both financial and ancillary support. They give the charity – recently praised for its “remarkable work” by Her Majesty the late Queen – a monthly budget that can be spent in the cash-and-carry warehouse on items to distribute from its food bank. Recently the company proactively increased the monthly budget as they are acutely aware of the cost-of-living crisis and the increased demand for PL84U’s services. Wanis also helps PL84U to promote itself via their marketing and public relations team to increase the charity’s profile and boost funding and donations.
In addition, Wanis supports several other food banks across London and the U.K, including Peckham Pantry, Brixton Soup Kitchen, Made in Hackney and the Birmingham Care Group.
Their portfolio of brands includes many traditional Asian, Caribbean and African food products, and whilst these are becoming increasingly popular with customers from all backgrounds, they recognise that many of their customers are of black and south Asian heritage. As such, Wanis wants to help serve and engage these communities. This is what led the team to work with the NHS at the height of the pandemic to encourage people of black and south Asian heritage to donate much-needed blood at a time when donations were worrying low. They also worked on a campaign to encourage conversations around the often-taboo subject of organ donation where there are sometimes cultural or religious barriers to this life-giving gift.
They put stickers on 100,000 bags of rice to encourage donations and also utilised their marketing and Public Relations expertise to recruit celebrities and influencers to create and post content across social media channels.
Last year when Pakistan was struck by devasting flooding, Wanis provided 150 water pumps to rural villages.
Mrs Wadhwani and Sanjay reflect on key milestones in the Wanis journey:
“My mum and my Dad, they were the guys who started this. Mum was always very strict and dad was very soft. They imported fresh fruit and vegetables and the location close to Spitalfields Market was ideal because we benefited from passing custom but because we weren’t officially part of the market we didn’t have to pay their levy, which gave Mum and Dad a price advantage.” – Sanjay
“Sometimes shipments were delayed so the produce would go off, or the wrong shipment came in at the wrong time. I realised that importing fresh produce from abroad was a very precarious business to be in, so I told my husband we needed to change and that’s when we started trading in tinned stuff. ” – Mrs Wadhwani
Mrs Wadhwani in 1984
“In the 1970’s there were lots of industrial action and strikes which resulted in power cuts. This was a disaster for my parents because our fresh stock would spoil when the fridges and freezers would go off. All their money was tied up in stock so they’d lose all their money. In those days they got money and put it into stock, got money and put it into more stock…that’s what you did. So, everything was destroyed and that happened to them three times!” – Sanjay
“By the 1980s we were selling products mainly from the Caribbean. I noticed that East London had more and more people from West Africa, so I asked my husband to start importing foods from that part of the world, business picked up and our customer base increased, it was really successful” – Mrs Wadhwani
“In 1991 Spitalfields Market moved to East London, so we had to move too, we found a large warehouse on Waterden Road, which is now the Olympic Park. It was owned by the Brook Bond Company; they accepted our low-ball offer with the proviso that we had to complete within 7 days. We didn’t have time to organise finance with the bank so we went to a loan shark with a crazy rate of interest. We borrowed the money from him, bought the building and sorted out the mortgage with the bank afterwards so that we didn’t lose the deal. The building was too big for us, we couldn’t afford the overheads like the rates and mortgage, so we did it in stages. We took one part of the building and rented out the back part. As we grew, we took back more and more of the space. That’s what we did, we kept knocking the walls down!” – Sanjay
Sanjay, Kapil & Dad's Merc
“My brother Kapil and I still enjoy coming to work every day, so we have no plans to retire to the golf course just yet. Having said that as we continue to grow its natural that we have brought in key individuals to be responsible for the running of the business and strategy. Kapil always says that our people are our USP.” – Sanjay
“We made a name for ourselves, people would say 'the stuff you can’t get anywhere else, you’ll get at Wanis'.”
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".
Convenience store body Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) today (30) has warned the Chancellor about the negative effects of the new National Living Wage (NLW) increase, a day after the Chancellor announced a pay rise for over 3 million workers next year, with NLW rates rising by 6.7 perc cent.
From April 2025, the NLW will increase from £11.44 to £12.21 while 18-20 National Minimum Wage will rise by £1.40 per hour to £10 - the largest increase on record, marking the first step towards a single adult rate.
ACS chief executive James Lowman said, “Our members are grappling with how to afford this inflation-busting increase in wage costs. The market remains tough, with many retailers reporting flat or declining sales while expenses like banking charges, credit card processing fees and energy bills are eating away at their profitability.
"More than ever, we need help from the Chancellor in the Budget. Without sustained and enhanced help on business rates, a reduction in National Insurance Contributions, and effective incentives to drive investment, our sector faces a challenging future. For some communities, this could mean the viability of their local shop is put at risk.”
Evidence provided to the Low Pay Commission by ACS earlier this year already found that to handle the increases in national wage increases, 53 per cent of retailers have reduced the amount they invest in their business, 53 per cent have been forced to increase their prices in store, and 47 per cent have had to take lower profits.
Baroness Philippa Stroud, Chair of the Low Pay Commission (LPC), stated that data already shows signs of employers finding it harder to adapt to minimum wage increases.
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.