There are many well-known convenience retailers in the UK, and then there are those who keep raising the bar for what convenience retailing can be. A select few choose to take the road less travelled, challenging conventional ways of doing business and setting new milestones along the way.
Independent retailers Mandeep, Baljeet and Vrinder Singh, owners of Singh’s Premier stores in Sheffield, are among them. From building a thriving delivery operation to keeping a fiercely independent approach to retail, the Singh brothers have carved out a model that is as ambitious as it is distinctive.
In a conversation with Asian Trader, Mandeep, on behalf of the brothers, spoke at length about their business journey so far and why they decided to go solo on the road of rapid delivery.
"My parents bought our Teynham Road store in 1988. I was 11 at the time. The initial focus was to get the right stock and ensure availability. When the tired run down store was injected with fresh stock, the results were instantaneous," he said.
"The sales picked up very quickly. I remember when we first touched 10,000 pounds a week sales, it was a massive milestone for the family."
What started with a focus on getting the basics right soon evolved into a more deliberate approach to running the stores. As sales grew and the business stabilised, the family began putting greater emphasis on merchandising, availability and customer service.
Longer opening hours became another part of that evolution, with the stores moving from an 8am–8pm model to opening from 6am until 10pm.
That early experience of identifying what customers wanted and then adapting the business around it would go on to shape the Singh brothers' approach to retailing decades later.
"Today, between me and my brothers Vrinder and Baljeet Singh, we have three high-performing stores in Shefield, some property investments and stores that are leased out to other entities," Mandeep said.
While Singh’s Premier stores have built their reputation around fresh, food to go, vaping, premium spirits and customer service, it is the family’s approach to delivery that has truly set the business apart.
Home delivery, interestingly, is not a new idea for the Singh family. It dates back around three decades, when Singh’s parents would deliver locally to elderly customers as an extension of their service to the community.
It was Covid-19, however, that transformed delivery from a community service into a serious business opportunity.
As demand surged, the family teamed up with a local taxi company to fulfil orders. But the arrangement soon exposed a problem that would ultimately shape the future of their stores' delivery business.
“Within a few weeks, we figured out we were not making much money in this model because they were charging us 15 per cent commission," he said.
Rather than accepting the hit to margins or passing the additional cost on to customers, the brothers began looking for a way to take greater control of the operation.
“So we started digging if we can do a better job ourselves and eventually came with the concept of Singh’s Drop," he said.
Image by Mandeep Singh
The family initially partnered with Zeus Labs and stayed with the company for four years. But as the delivery operation expanded, Singh felt the business had outgrown the arrangement.
“We did not want anyone to take commission because in that case our margins would have hit and we did not want to increase prices for our customers," Mandeep recalled.
“And that’s why we thought to go completely independent without any partner."
The decision has since produced results on a scale that Mandeep believes few, if any, independent retailers can match.
“Singh’s Drop is working phenomenally,” he said. "We offer 30-minute delivery. Our best week happened recently when we touched £58,000 delivery sales in a week.”
For the Singh brothers, though, the achievement is less about one record week and more about the infrastructure the family has built around delivery.
The operation now runs with 14 cars on the road. It is a scale of operation that has made delivery far more than an add-on to the convenience stores. For the brothers, rapid delivery is now an integral part of the business, one that demands its own stock management.
Social media has also become an important part of that equation, helping the brothers connect directly with customers and promote products beyond the traditional store environment.
“Our delivery is all about social media,” Mandeep said. “Apart from the usual range, we also get exclusive stock of new launches that we offer on Singh’s Drop before even our nearest wholesaler has it.”
For the Singh brothers, this is part of a much broader shift in how they approach convenience retailing.
“For us, retailing is not anymore about cash and carry visits,” Mandeep said. “We have done all that and now we deal with our business differently. We strongly believe that to grow and prosper, one needs to think beyond the box.”
That willingness to think differently extends beyond the stores themselves.
For the past 15 years, Singh’s Premier stores have partnered with Sheffield United to host an annual community football event on the club’s main pitch. What started with a somewhat audacious request from the brothers has become a longstanding fixture, bringing the local community together while raising money for charity.
“15 years ago, when I proposed this and it was approved, I was honestly gobsmacked that they didn't question anything,” Mandeep said. “Every year since then, we have been playing on the main pitch.”
Image by Mandeep Singh
The event has raised significant sums for local causes. This year, £27,000 was raised for Western Park Hospital. Last year’s event raised £15,800, while the previous year generated £18,200 for Sheffield Hospitals Charity. Another year saw £22,000 raised for Macmillan Cancer Research.
Customer relationships are equally important.
“We also use social media to engage and communicate with our customers,” Mandeep said, pointing to the business’s nearly 23,000 Facebook followers.
For the Singh brothers, all these elements- delivery, customer engagement, staff, community and independence- come together to define the business.
“We were the second Premier store of Booker out of their 5,500-store estate,” Mandeep said.
Despite being approached by rival symbol groups, including with what Mandeep described as offers of “crazy money” to switch, the family has remained loyal to Booker's Premier.
That loyalty sits comfortably alongside the brothers' determination to retain control over how the business operates.
“We live and breathe retail. We live and breathe delivery. We live and breathe loyalty," Mandeep concluded.