Faisalabad’s entrepreneurial duo capitalise on retail boom

SB Retail Stores’ business model is simple: provide quality products.

FAISALABAD:

Seven years ago, Basharat Jaspal and Rana Safdar decided to try their luck in the booming retail business after graduating from University of Agriculture Faisalabad rather than search for jobs.

Now, seven years down the line, they own a retail chain, consisting of two stores while two more are in the pipeline. The business model is simple: provide quality products to the consumers. They have also established their own dairy farm to sell fresh dairy products at their stores.

The introduction of new domestic and international brands and their immediate success urged us to start our business with small investment, said Bashart Jaspal and Rana Safdar, founders of SB Retail Stores, while taking to The Express Tribune.

“Following the success of our business model, we have decided to open two more stores, and eventually we plan to expand to bigger cities,” they added.

The retail boom in Faisalabad is being attributed to the rising upper-and middle-class of the city. Faisalabad – Pakistan’s third-largest city – has a number of shopping malls and retail stores that cater to the needs of all kinds of customers. These stores and chains provide employment opportunities to hundreds of people.

Opening of various retailers at convenient locations has created awareness of modern retail shopping which has also given a great opportunity to the businessmen to invest in the market.

Pakistani entrepreneurs and professions need to capitalise on these opportunities, the young businessmen said.

“We have cashed our education by founding our own business, and know the real needs of the people. Our objective is to provide fresh and high-quality products to customers. To achieve this, we have set up a dairy farm which has a population of 500 cows and other animals to provide pure and fresh milk to our stores,” they said.

Jaspal and Safdar have also set up flour grinding machines and stock a variety of fresh spices along with a spice mixer equipment to give a choice of fresh products to its customers. To maintain quality standards, meat and poultry products are also procured from the company’s own farm.

The emerging middle-class is witnessing a mood-shift from general stores and corner shops towards everything-under-one-roof branded retail stores, said Jaspal. “Majority of customers seek quality product in sufficient quantities under one roof,” he added.

Pakistan’s retail and wholesale sector has been on the path of sustained annual growth, Jaspal and Safdar said. This has created a great business opportunity in the market for entrepreneurs.

“We were not businessmen, but just simple graduates. We took the risk to start our own business without much investment and found very good and lucrative return in the retail sector,” the duo said.

With the emerging trend of retail store shopping, we will move to the other cities of Pakistan to open more outlets, they added.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2013.

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