Kopinath Kalanathan has built his convenience business around a simple belief: there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all store.
His own journey began on the shop floor. Starting his career in a UK convenience store gave Kalainathan first-hand experience of serving customers, managing daily operations and understanding what local communities actually expect from their shops.
In 2010, he took that experience and began building his own retail business. It has since grown to 25 sites across Yorkshire, including one forecourt.
But while the estate has grown considerably, Kalanathan has resisted the idea that scale should mean uniformity.
Each store is shaped around its location, physical layout and customer base, with a common philosophy running through the group: make every shop a unique and convenient destination.
Food-to-go has become an increasingly important part of that strategy. The business has developed concepts including The Cream Hut, offering handmade gelato, brownies, brookies, brookie pies, cookies and loaded cookies. Breaks Coffee complements the offer, alongside in-house fresh pastries, coffee, hot food and sandwiches.
Vape Blizz provides another reason for customers to visit, helping create a broader proposition around everyday convenience, food and destination categories.
The result is an estate where some stores remain more traditional neighbourhood convenience shops, while others put much greater emphasis on food-to-go and destination products. For Kalanathan, that flexibility is crucial because what works in one community may not work in another.
It is also why he sees the evolution of his business as being about more than simply adding stores. The ambition has been to move from operating convenience shops to creating modern community retail hubs, combining everyday essentials with food, coffee, desserts, services and a more engaging customer experience.
The group operates under its own Freshgos brand but works with established fascia groups including Budgens, Premier and Costcutter. That arrangement allows Kalanathan to retain the freedom to develop each store around its local community while maintaining consistent standards across the wider business.
Independence, in this model, is less about standing alone and more about retaining the freedom to make decisions quickly.
That philosophy is evident in the way the business has developed its destination concepts. Rather than treating food-to-go as an add-on, Kalanathan has used it to create additional reasons for customers to visit and to give individual stores their own personality.
There is a clear sense of ambition behind the 25-store estate, but the defining feature is not simply its size. It is the ability to grow without losing the independent mindset that shaped the business in the first place.
For Kalanathan, the chain model does not mean making every shop identical. It means giving each store the freedom to become the right shop for its own community while bringing the experience, innovation and standards of a growing retail group behind it.