Great Inspirations

Produced in Partnership with the UK Government

The cautious lifting of three months of lockdown coincides with warm summer days and everyone’s desire to return to their “new normal” lives. But while the country has been weathering the pandemic storm, waiting for relief from restrictions, many within the independent retail sector have kept going throughout – performing above and beyond the call of duty with no regard for their own welfare, in order to safeguard the welfare of others.

The UK is now starting to rev up the economic engine and get back to business for summer. It has been a hard three months under lockdown but through it all local businesses and their employees have striven and innovated to make the best of the situation, stay afloat, and above all to help the communities and customers they depend on.

To celebrate their invaluable contributionsand shine a light on those who have responded to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in remarkable ways, The Government is launching its GREAT INSPIRATIONS Campaign.

Further information found at https://www.greatbritaincampaign.com/inspirations

For both the owners and the customers of Britain’s convenience grocery channel, the period has been one of discovery and learning. Never has so much been demanded of the people who work in neighbourhood stores – and the wholesalers who supply them.

They have had to deal with panic buying and unprecedented manufacturing and stock shortages, followed byan increase in workload reflected in foot-traffic up over 40 per cent in the lockdown period. They have worked so hard and such long hours that it has often seemed difficult even to find an opportunity to grab some sleep.

The nation’s independent retailers have almost become a fourth emergency service. Integrated with their local communities, their intimate knowledge of needs and vulnerabilities has made store-owners an indispensable resource during the pandemic.

Not only have they been the post-exchange of local information and a place where the lonely and insecure can chat and find reassurance, they have also donated food and PPE to hospitals, care homes and the needy, while setting up and running delivery services for the frail and isolated.

Independent retailers have acted far beyond the call of duty, to the extent that some of them – such as Raj Aggarwal, who day and night was dropping off supplies from his store to NHS staff at the local hospital in Leicester, while handing out sandwiches to the homeless – caught the virus and quickly died.

LOCAL LINCHPIN

One store-owner, Amrit Pahal of Walsall, West Midlands, spent the last lockdown acting as a one-man – or one-family – social services.

Amrit’s parents had runthe High Heath store for decades and were well-known locally.Last year the Pahalsbought a new property in the same parade at fitted it out as a neighbourhood office from where they now organise many activities and services, such as litter-collection patrols.

Amrit’s community role was already high-profile, and he is locally celebrated for the festival and fair he organises around his premises each year for the neighbourhood.

But with the arrival of the pandemic, the fun gave way to seriousness and Amrit swung into action, first setting up a “Coronavirus” aisle in this store, with all the products – sanitiser and gloves, masks and toilet roll – that might be needed as Covid-19 swept across the land.

After the lockdown was announced, as an essential store, Amrit was still able to get out and about to source supplies, and in addition to stock he made it his business to run the gauntlet of shortages and track down hard-to-find equipment.

He struck a deal with a company to secure drums of hand sanitizer, which he then sold at £1/100ml (instead of the £10 or £20 being charged elsewhere) and invited customers to come in and fill their own containers. He then went round delivering free sanitizer to local schools, homes and other places in need.

Then, when PPE for hospitals was in desperately short supply, Amrit tracked down stock and donated £10,000-worth of masks and other equipment to his local hospital.

Meanwhile, Pahal family members were donating regularly to care homes in the area and keeping up a daily delivery service of food to quarantinedand the old confined to their houses. Amrit’s efforts are continuing, tirelessly, and the local people of Walsall have come to regard him, and his family, as a Great Inspiration.

Amrit,by his always cheerful demeanour,has reassured locals and helped restore consumer confidence that it is safe to visit even“non-essential”businesses again as the lockdown is eased – and that there is every reason to get back to “new normal” as fast as possible.

THE GREAT – AND THE GOOD

Bestway Wholesale is the UK’s largest distributor to the independent grocery sector, supplying 40,000 retailers. Its chief executive, Zameer Choudrey CBE, was ennobled in 2019 to become Baron Choudrey of Hampstead.

But this did not prevent the company from being hit hard by the disruptions in supply caused first by panic buying and then general problems in logistics and delivery once the coronavirus had the nation in its grip. Bestway, like others in the independent wholesale sector, found it desperately difficult to find supplies for its busier-than-ever convenience clients.

Whilst adapting stock to cater for changing behaviour and desperate shortages, the wholesaler welcomed almost 3,000 new customers in its depots in just a couple of weeks and saw demand for deliveries significantly rise.

Concentrating on keeping staff safe throughout this challenging period, Bestway kept depots open and deliveries on the road, making delivered retail customers a priority. “We did our very best to get some basic PPE out to our colleagues – gloves, wipes, sanitisers, masks – and provided a series of emails, and information on our website, about government funding, support available – for foodservice and catering and for retail,” says Dawood.

“We gave our customers advice in relation to social distancing, appropriate PPE and in-store measures – including a very cost-effective screen solution which was suspended from the ceiling; and we put them into our own stores as well.”

“To stay agile, support our customers and ensure availability of stock, we had to make some changes to our setup,” said Bestway Wholesale MD Dawood Pervez. “We have gone further than government guidelines and offered all our staff PPE to ensure they feel safe and valued.”

While the company was realigning its operations to serve its clients and keep Britain fed, it was also stepping up its already considerable charity activities.

Since February 2019 Bestway has been donating stock and much-needed supplies to the Felix Project, which delivers food to charities and schools so they can provide healthy meals for the vulnerable in society.

Within a matter of weeks of working together, Bestway became Felix’s 10th biggest contributor with 4,705 crates of food, weighing in at 55 tonnes, equivalent to 130,000 meals.

“We have serviced, supplied stock and product to, or donated to over 60 different little charities or local authorities or food banks,” says Dawood. “Rather than doing one big gesture, we were continually inundated by lots of micro-charities as well as quite big ones, so we just did what we could.”

Against a backdrop of staff illness and desperate shortages, the donations continued to roll out.

“We have continued to donate food throughout the Coronavirus outbreak because we see this as our ethical duty to support those in need,” he affirmed.

No matter how long the pandemic continues, and no matter what the “new normal” might be, Bestway has blazed a trail in adapting to and overcoming near-impossible conditions.

INTO THE SUNSHINE

There is Government guidance available to help high street businesses prepare to reopen their doors in a way that is safe for their employees and customers, such as ensuring social distancing.

After companies have gone above and beyond during the pandemic, now as a nation we must get behind them to get back to business safely.

Reopening non-essential retail is the next step towards restoring people’s livelihoods, restarting the UK’s economy, and ensuring vital public services like the NHS continue to be funded.