The Sadiq family picked up a highly deserved Special Recognition trophy at the recent SLR Awards for four decades at the cutting edge of local retailing in Scotland.
By Antony Begley
They say that retailing gets into your blood and there’s no doubt that’s the case with the hugely popular and hugely successful Sadiq family in Glasgow. For more than 40 years, the Sadiqs have been highly active in Scotland’s local retailing community, consistently remaining at its leading edge.
No mean feat, and that’s why Saleem and family collected a richly deserved Special Recognition Award at this year’s SLR Awards and received a rapturous round of applause from the entire room.
Even before Saleem first arrived in the UK with his father and his big brother Khalid way back in 1967, the family was already steeped in retail, as he explains: “My grandmother was involved in retail back in Pakistan and we were known as the ‘Huttie Wallahs,’ the shopkeepers. And, as they say, once a Huttie Wallah, always a Huttie Wallah!”
At the time Saleem was just 10 years old and couldn’t speak a word of English. “Aged 11 they put me into primary one!” he laughs. “But within a few years I was in high school and I did alright.”
Saleem’s dad had been given permission by his own father to try his luck in Scotland for five years with the promise that he’d return to Pakistan. “True to his word, my dad went back after five years,” explains Saleem, “but then he asked my grandfather for another five years!”
His dad had been in the army but was discharged to come to the UK and got a job as a bus conductor, then became a driver and an inspector. In 1968, Saleem and Khalid were joined in Scotland by brothers Iqbal and Ashy and sister Shamim. Umjit was the only member of the family to actually be born in Scotland.
Career development
Before long, the retail bug bit and Saleem’s dad bought a small newsagents on Maxwell Road in Glasgow’s south side. At the time the family lived in Ibrox so Khalid and Saleem, aged 15 and 12, would cycle there every weekend to open the shop and give their dad a long lie.
Then Saleem’s uncle arrived in Scotland and the business really began to grow, acquiring four newsagents before selling the lot to have a go at the restaurant business. By the time Saleem was old enough to get properly involved, the family owned three restaurants. As a dyed-in-the-wool family of Huttie Wallahs, however, they then decided to sell the restaurants to get back into retail.
The family bought their first store in Duntocher in December 1984, a Spar store. “My main recollection is that people asked us why we were planning to stay with Spar because the perception at that time was that Spar was expensive,” says Saleem. “But what we saw in Spar was professionalism and discipline. We felt it was the right way to run a business. We didn’t want to be touring round cash and carries chasing deals. We wanted to run the shop well and efficiently and professionally.”
Next up was another Spar store in Bonhill which was promptly fully refitted, doubling sales. They kept that store for five years before selling it on before buying another store in Knightswood which they promptly brought into Spar.
A year or so later, Saleem was invited to have a look at a store in Renfrew owned by the Co-op. Nothing doing at that point but around a year later, he was invited back for another look and a fresh deal – and this time the family decided to go for it.
They gutted it, rebuilt it more or less from the ground up and re-opened on 22 March 1994. The result? “Sales doubled in the first week again,” laughs Saleem. Last year, the family celebrated 30 years in the store, a remarkable achievement. Last year also marked the family’s 40th year in the retailing trade, an equally remarkable milestone.
Energy and standards
What is so striking about Spar Renfrew and, indeed, all of the family’s stores is the unrelenting passion, enthusiasm, energy and vision that Saleem and his family have been able to bring to their stores consistently and unfailingly for decades. Renfrew in particular has always been near the cutting edge of local retailing – and the wall of countless industry awards behind the till tells its own story.
“Our guiding principle has always been to just do things right,” explains Saleem. “That’s what has made us successful in this store for 30 years and successful as a business for 40. We learned very early on that nobody wants to come to a messy, dirty store. Just like everybody wants a nice house, everybody wants a nice store. It’s not complicated.”
Well, running a successful convenience retailing business for 30 years can be complicated, but Saleem and family have a knack for making it look easy.
“I think it comes down to passion and drive and a work ethic,” ponders Saleem. “We’re natural born Huttie Wallahs and I get a buzz from retail in a way I don’t get from other sectors. I don’t know where the years have gone, but I would happily do it all over again.”
Keep on going
Despite 40 years in the trade, the family has no plans to slow down any time soon. There’s too much to be done, believes Saleem.
The family sold the Duntocher store to their Postmaster, although they retained an interest in it. The Co-op took back the Knightswood store after the 21-year lease expired but the Sadiq family still have stores on Kilbowie Road and at St George’s Cross, and they’re doing well.
The home delivery side of the business continues to flourish and there are some major refits in the pipeline. “We’ve got some big plans and we’re considering some quite unusual ideas,” says Saleem. “It’s exciting.”
Interestingly, considering the family now has “15 or 16 kids,” only one of them is actively involved in the business, Saleem’s son Waseem. The rest are doctors and lawyers and dentists and opticians and teachers and engineers and architects.
“Waseem trained in accountancy, so that’s prepared him well for the business,” Saleem says. “We never asked him to join, he just wanted to, but we’ll be looking for him to take the business forward for the next 30 years.”
And it’s not just among fellow retailers that the Sadiq family are popular: customers seem to love them to. A TikTok post showing the family holding their special 30th birthday cake outside the store received over 30,000 hits.
We’ll be looking out for 40,000 hits when the store celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2034, then.
In the meantime, Saleem and family look set to continue leading from the front, playing in active role with the entire sector and, of course, running some of the finest local retailing businesses in Scotland.
A Special Achievement indeed.
