Karan Patel was one day old when his mother carried him back behind the counter of the family shop. Three decades on, he runs seven stores and is the industry's reigning Next Gen champion – and he is still refusing to stand still.
There is an image that exists only in the retelling: a newborn baby, propped in his mother's arms while she serves customers. Karan Patel was only 24 hours old. “My mother was back at work behind the counter of our family-owned store with me, just one day after my birth, so I literally can say I was born into this business,” he says. It sounds like a flourish until you realise it is simply what happened.
That image explains much of what followed. Today, 31-year-old Karan heads a seven-store, family-run group centred on Leeds' LS10 postcode and is the winner of the Next Gen Award at the 2025 Asian Trader Awards. Ask him what the award has actually changed, though, and the answer is not about the trophy.
“It's definitely given me more confidence and motivation,” he says. “Winning the Asian Trader Next Gen Award was a proud moment, but it also made me want to push KP's further. We've focused more on bringing in different products, creating excitement in the store and giving customers a reason to keep coming back.”
In the year since, KP's has added two more stores to the group. “We're still very much a local, family-run business, but we're becoming more ambitious and have a clear focus on continuing to grow and improve the stores,” he says.
KP's has been growing steadily the whole time. “The group now has seven stores in total. We manage the business as a family, with everyone playing their part,” Karan clarifies. “Personally, I'm mainly focused on managing and developing our Leeds stores, so that's where most of my day-to-day attention goes.”
KP's Mini Market store in LeedsPhoto: Handout
Retail was never a career choice for Karan so much as an inheritance he chose to accept. “I've honestly been around retail for as long as I can remember,” he says. “Some of my earliest memories are being in the shop after school, helping out and just watching my family run the business. It never really felt like a job to me because it was just part of everyday family life.”
That did not mean simply stepping into his parents' shoes. Karan graduated from Loughborough University in 2016 and returned to the family stores, only to be handed a test rather than a title. “It was a gradual process rather than me simply taking over from my parents. My dad wanted me to prove myself first. He felt I should build and grow a business of my own before taking on responsibility for the stores they had built.”
So Karan took on a struggling shop doing around £900 a week. He has since grown it to more than £13,000 a week – a fifteen-fold increase that did more than prove a point. “That experience really gave me the confidence and knowledge to take on more responsibility within the family business.”
Photo: Handout
The turnaround was not down to stocking more of the same. “I saw potential in the location and the local community, even though the shop wasn't performing at the time. I knew it needed a completely different approach,” Karan says. “We improved the range and presentation, brought in products customers actually wanted, and I also added a tanning salon onto the store. That helped bring more people into the area and increased footfall.”
It is a classic Karan Patel move: solving a convenience store problem with a solution that has nothing to do with convenience retailing at all.
That turnaround became the blueprint for building a portfolio across LS10. “I've learned that you can't just look at the shop and the current sales, you have to look at the potential,” he says. “I look at the location, the local community, the competition and, most importantly, what I think I can do differently. Sometimes a shop might not look like a great opportunity on paper, but if I can see the potential to grow it, that's what interests me.”
Photo: Handout
He has previously spoken about there being an optimum size for an independent chain, dictated by how well an operator can manage staff, logistics and standards across sites. A year and two more stores on, that thinking still holds.
“It's not about having as many stores as possible, it's about making sure we can maintain the standards and customer service across every store,” he says. “My ambitions haven't changed. I'd definitely like to keep expanding when the right opportunities come along, but I don't want to lose the family and community feel.”
Nowhere is that balancing act more visible than at KP's Mini Market on Belle Isle Road, the store that has become the public face of the business. Close to the M621, its top-to-bottom refit brought a Beer Cave, a Refresh@Premier food-to-go counter, extended fresh and chilled ranges, meal deals and delivery into a shop that, by Karan's own account, used to sell just four lines of fresh produce.
“What's surprised me most is just how much the store has changed the way people shop,” he says. “Customers who never used to come in are now regulars, and we've had people genuinely surprised that it's the same shop they used to walk past.”
Photo: Handout
Ask him what a string of refits has taught him about persuading shoppers to spend more, and Karan is unsentimental about it. “It's about giving customers a reason to spend, not just giving them more products,” he says. “Good presentation, a strong range and making the store easy to shop all make a big difference. If you have the right products in the right place and give people something they weren't expecting, they're much more likely to pick up an extra item or two.”
Underpinning it all is a value message Karan is careful never to lose sight of. “We know customers have plenty of choice, so we don't want them to feel they're paying more just because they're shopping locally,” he says. Pressed on what separates a KP's from any other convenience store, he circles back to the same idea. “It's the combination of range, value and the way we look after our customers,” he says. “But ultimately, it comes back to the people. We're a family business and we're very connected to the communities we serve.”
That instinct extends to the shelves, which have become known for imported and limited-edition products – American drinks flown in from across the Atlantic, boxes of mangoes from India, whatever else has caught Karan's eye that week.
“Customers love seeing something new or different, and imported and limited-edition products give people a reason to come in and see what we've got,” he says. “A lot of it comes from listening to customers and keeping an eye on what's trending, especially on social media. Sometimes you get it completely right, sometimes you don't, but that's part of retail!”
Photo: Handout
Being early rather than reactive is the trick: “You can bring something in almost as a trial, and suddenly it's flying off the shelves because people have seen it online.”
For all the modernisation, the sense of family history has never faded. The Belle Isle store's feature wall of old family photographs is a deliberate reminder of where the business began.
“The old family photos show where we've come from and the history behind KP's. We’ve been part of LS10 for a long time, so keeping that local identity is something I’m very proud of,” Karan says. “We can modernise the stores and move with the times, but I don't want to lose the connection with the community that got us here.”
That instinct shows up in smaller gestures too – KP's has handed out free bottled water to customers during heatwaves. “Because we're a local family business, we know our customers personally and see them every day,” he says. “That relationship means a lot to us, and I think it's one of the biggest things that sets KP's apart.”
Photo: Handout
Asked what his parents actually taught him, Karan reduces it to something close to a mission statement. “The biggest lesson my parents taught me is that retail is about people. Family support and being part of the local community have always been really important to us,” he says. “The key is keeping the family values my parents built the business on, while still being willing to adapt and try something new.”
If there is a single thread running through everything Karan has built, it is a refusal to let the business settle. “You can't stand still in retail,” he says. “You have to keep listening to your customers, understand what they want and be willing to adapt.” With hindsight, the one thing he would change is not a decision but a delay. “If I was starting again, I'd probably have more confidence in my ideas from the beginning. Not everything works, but some of the best things we've done have come from trying something new.”
Karan Patel inside the KP's Mini Market store in Leeds Photo: Handout
That appetite shows no sign of slowing. Karan is already looking three to five years ahead, and the ambition he describes is measured less in store count than in what the business represents.
“I'd like KP's to have grown into a strong, well established independent group, with more stores but without losing what makes us different,” he says. “Success isn't just about the number of stores or the sales. It's about building something that my family can be proud of, creating opportunities for the next generation and continuing to be a business that our local communities genuinely value.”
Given where he started – a day-old baby behind his mother's counter – it is hard to bet against him.