ONE of the largest family-owned businesses in the UK, the Bestway Group consists of the UK’s second largest food wholesaler, Bestway Wholesale, the UK’s second largest retail pharmacy chain, Well Pharmacy, Pakistan’s largest cement manufacturer, Bestway Cement and Pakistan’s third largest bank, United Bank Limited. Starting off as a chain of convenience stores in 1963, the conglomerate owned by the Pervez, Choudrey and Sheikh families today serves more than 12 million customers and employs over 28,000 individuals across the UK, Pakistan and the Middle East, with turnover in excess of £4.5 billion. Last April, the group expanded into pharmaceutical wholesaling through the acquisition of Asurex Limited and Lexon UK Holdings, which operate five depots in Redditch, Leeds, Durham, East Kilbride in Scotland and Dublin, serving 3,000 retail pharmacy customers across the UK and Eire. The acquisition also included Lexon’s Knights Pharmacy chain of 42 community pharmacies, further strengthening Well Pharmacy’s position across the Midlands, North west, and Northeast of England. Later in August, Well Pharmacy acquired 11 Lloyds Pharmacy branches in Scotland. The group has been steadily increasing its retail footprint with acquisitions, of Conviviality plc in 2018, owners of Bargain Booze, Wine Rack and Central Convenience symbol retail brands, and Costcutter Supermarkets Group in 2021. The acquisitions, along with its own best one symbol group, placed Bestway at the forefront of independent UK retail, creating a symbol, franchise, and company store retail estate incorporating nearly 3,800 stores. And, Bestway is now defining the future of convenience retail, unveiling new hybrid store concepts that bring together two much-loved retail brands. Following on the heels of launching the pioneering ‘Costcutter with a ‘Bargain Booze store’ model in 2022, the entrepreneurial team at Bestway Retail has opened its first ‘Costcutter with a Wine Rack store’ in December last year. The new company-owned store, which opened in Guildford, Surrey is a first in the new Costcutter Wine Rack combination in a concept which looks set to be rolled out across other stores throughout the Southwest.
At the same time, this is a company that is very much appreciated by those it was set up to help and even rescue: Britain’s small, independent shopkeepers. The late 1960s and early 1970s was a period of modernisation and change in UK grocery, with many of the small supermarket chains being gobbled up by the emerging giants we know today. Wholesale margins at the time were high, 10-12 per cent, retail profits wafer-thin, and it seemed as if grocery stores could survive only by scaling up.
This made being an indie at the time a precarious and ill-starred career-choice, because the tiny margins indies could charge were on the knife-edge of being ruinous. Sir Anwar Pervez, founder and chairman of the Bestway Group, was acutely aware of this as a storeowner himself - he opened his first convenience store ‘Kashmir’ in Earl’s Court, London in 1963 and had 11 shops by the time he opened his first cash and carry in Acton in 1976. He had the insight that he could supply the sector he knew very well, a lot more cheaply than the existing wholesalers. Sir Anwar’s ‘revolutionary’ act was to slash his wholesale margin to around three per cent, with the confidence that he could still make a profit by knowing his market and being super-efficient. When the Acton depot opened its doors in 1976, the pricing was popular and it was a runaway success. Based today at Park Royal, London, a ten minute drive from their first location in Acton, Bestway Wholesale is now the UK’s largest independent wholesaler, with 62 Bestway and Batleys depots spanning the length and breadth of the UK, supplying to independent retailers and catering and food service operators. The charitable works began off the back of Bestway’s success. In 1987 Bestway Foundation UK was established and a sister organisation in Pakistan came to be formed a decade later. The foundation, which is funded out of the profits of Bestway Group, has donated more than £35 million to notable causes since its formation. It operates both in the UK and Pakistan, focussing predominantly in education and healthcare sectors.
Last year, Bestway Foundation UK donated £100,000 each to Barnardo’s, the UK’s largest children’s charity, and National Brain Appeal, raised through the group’s annual Ascot Charity Race Day in 2022 and 2023, respectively. The Charity Race Day is one of Bestway Wholesale’s largest corporate events in the calendar, supported by supplier partners for over 30 years. Over 26 charities have benefited from funds raised through the event since it began in 1994. The group, whose family roots are firmly embedded in Pakistan, has also raised over $3m through its Pakistan Flood Relief Appeal, and the Bestway Foundation has overseen the distribution of ration bags, blankets, mosquito nets and water filtration units to over 20,000 families in the worst affected areas of southern Pakistan provinces of Baluchistan and Sindh. It is a fine way for Sir Anwar to give back to the country he left in the 1950s to make a life here in the UK, which started humbly as a bus conductor. His services to business and philanthropy have been recognised by the UK government with an OBE in 1992, and knighthood in 1999. The following year, he was awarded Hilali-Pakistan (Crescent of Pakistan), the secondhighest civil award by the Pakistani government. Choudrey was made a CBE in 2016, and received Sitara-i-Imtiaz (Star of Excellence) honour from Pakistan two years later. He was nominated for a life peerage in 2019. Dawood, a vocal champion of independent wholesalers and retailers, currently serves as the chairman of Federation of Wholesale Distributors, the trade association of the UK food and drink wholesalers.
