Abu Bakr: Yorkshire supermarket chain aiming to be ‘on the level of Asda’ as new generation takes the reins
In the late 1960s, Mohammad Aslam would travel from Pakistan to West Yorkshire in the hope of finding factory work and being able to send money back to his family.
Though he originally planned to return back to Pakistan, Mohammad’s desire to serve the community around him, each of whom had travelled from abroad with similar hopes to his own, would see him launch a small business empire which has now lasted over 40 years.
But decades on since West Yorkshire supermarket chain Abu Bakr first launched as a small corner shop, a new generation has now taken the reins of the business.
At the start of this year, Hamza Hussain was crowned as the new managing director of the company at the age of 22, taking the reins from his father Sajid who, along with his two brothers, had previously taken over from Mohammad.
Hamza will eventually be joined by a string of family members who will work around him, who form the third generation of the family firm.
Like the generation before them, the new group have their eyes on expansion, with plans to grow from six stores in West Yorkshire to a string of stores across the UK. But this is not all the family has planned for the company.
“We want to be touching the levels of Asda,” says Hamza, speaking toThe Yorkshire Post from Abu Bakr’s flagship Batley store.
“We want to bring an ethnic, Asian supermarket to the levels of Asda or Tesco. Obviously that's going to be a lot of hard work, but we believe we can do it.”
Last month, Abu Bakr announced a roughly £18m plan to double its store footprint.
Though the family are keeping their cards close to their chest in terms of where the first new locations might be, Hamza tells The Yorkshire Post that they are in the process of looking at different sites, naming “cities like” Manchester, Leicester, Birmingham and London as potential candidates.
Through the new locations, the company hopes to replicate the model of its 15,000 sq ft flagship Batley store, which was first launched in 2024.
Hamza’s desire to work for the family firm stems back to him still being at school.
“Since a young age I was always helping out with the family business. Obviously, I was learning a lot from my father because I was around him every single day,” he says.
“I did my GCSEs, went to college, and after that I told my dad ‘university is really important, but I want to join the family business, I want to expand it’.
“My dad told me ‘if you believe in yourself, you can do it,’ so as soon as I finished college, I joined the business.”
“It's a massive responsibility, and it's a lot of pressure,” he adds, “But I feel privileged as well, because a lot of people don't have the chance at this age to do what I'm doing.”
Hamza’s father, Sajid, also sees a mirroring of his own career trajectory in Hamza’s taking over the role.
“I’ve basically been shadowing and keeping an eye on him for the past four or five years, just like my father did with me,” says Sajid.
“I know it's the right time. He is taking responsibilities, and he is learning, just like I did. He's meticulous, and he wants to get work gone. To be successful, you’ve got to start at an early age, and success happens when you’re given responsibility.”
Sajid’s generation of the business consists of he and his two brothers, Abid and Wajid, who had watched the company grow from a small shop attached to a fish and chip shop.
“The company started as a single store in Leeds. Our first little store was in Harehills, focussed on servicing the community, and over time we found our model,” says Sajid, speaking on the history of the family firm.
“Its a typical story where you have a corner shop and we worked hard, endless hours in the middle of the night. My brother started at the age of ten.
“In the 80s we had a little shop in Keighley, and my brother used to go on the trian on a Friday and come back on a Sunday.
“Then in 2002 we bought the first Abu Bakr-branded store in Hyde Park, and that was a big jump from a little corner store.
“My brother tool over the reins from my father in 1986, and we worked hard. My father had been a risk taker, he opened quite a few businesses. He lost a lot of money in the 80s, but my brother told him, ‘dad we just want your help, and we’ll get every penny back. Thats exactly what has happened.”
As well as the Abu Bakr stores, the family is now also launching a new Halal meat business, Ayah Halal, and Aura, a new all-day dining concept in Roundhay.
Just like their father before them, the group believe the firm’s core responsibility should be to serve the communities around them.
“It’s about engaging with communities of all kinds,” says Sajid.
“We have a massive community of South Indians, people from the Middle East, Thai people, Chinese, British people, and everyone has their own way of cooking.
“It's about everything you sell. The beans, the chickpeas, the lentils, the spices, even the rice. You have to cater for everyone.The difference between our store and a traditional supermarket Is the huge amount of variety. We have about 50 or 60 different kinds of rice.
“Bringing in customers is very easy, but the secret is bringing them back, and that comes from serving communities.”