19 SEPTEMBER 2025 ASIAN TRADER 19
PROFILES IN SUCCESS
ASIAN TRADER AWARDS WINNERS
When a customer is refused a sale,
the process doesn’t end with rejection.
Staff offer alternatives, provide support
resources, even signpost customers to
social services when needed. Most
remarkably, they follow up. “After
some time, we will reach out to them.
We’ll have that conversation, or if they
come in again and we can see that
they’re in a better place, or they’re still
struggling, we’ll ask them.”
This approach recently helped
resolve what could have been a
domestic abuse situation. Without
revealing too many details, Priyesh
describes how his team guided someone to
recognise unhealthy relationship dynamics,
leading both parties to return and thank the
store for helping them understand their
impact on each other.
“You know, we have particular behaviour
mannerisms in our family homes, and we
think we know that we’re doing something
for the best for our family members, but
actually we’re putting them in a difficult
position where they feel like they’re trapped,”
he reflects.
Fighting the system
This community-first approach makes
Priyesh’s frustration with current enforce
ment systems all the more acute. The £200
shoplifting threshold – which designates
theft under that value as a summary offence
– has, in his view, created a monster that
threatens the very foundations of community
retail.
“Government, some years back, almost
legalised shoplifting,” he states bluntly.
“What they’ve done is, they’ve taken away
our management tools.”
The impact goes beyond lost inventory.
“When you steal from me, you’re stealing
from the community because I’m feeding
the homeless. I’m also paying into the
football team that your child supports and
goes to. I’m paying into the dance group
that your child goes to. I’m supporting
local school for breakfast club that your
children also go to.”
His store services a food bank twice weekly
and supports Manchester’s Homeless Aid
every Tuesday and Thursday, regardless of
circumstances. These community invest
ments become casualties of theft that
enforcement agencies seem unable or
unwilling to address meaningfully.
The AI-powered camera system represents
Priyesh’s technological response to policy
failures, but it’s the human response that
reveals his character. Recent BBC interviews
have highlighted his criticism of enforcement
agencies’ approach, particularly after a
heavy-handed police raid on his store that
treated his community-supporting team like
suspects.
“I know that, having been an officer, if an
allegation is made, you must go and deal with
it. So do a compliance visit, but don’t go and
raid a store in that heavy handed format,
because all that’s done is that’s made my
team, who are doing everything they can to
support that community, feel like they’re
suspects,” he argues.
Innovation through care
Perhaps most remarkably, Priyesh has created
what he calls a graduate sponsorship scheme,
bringing talented individuals from India to
work in his store while supporting their
families’ migration to the UK. It’s an approach
born from practical experience rather than
ideology.
“Having trialled multiple local
individuals for these roles, I just couldn’t
get them to have the same effort. The
work ethic was different, the under
standing of the relationship just wasn’t
the same,” he explains.
The sponsored employees joined in
2023, and by year’s end, Priyesh was
supporting their dependents’ immigra
tion, creating not just jobs but genuine
opportunities for families to build new
lives.
“It’s a very proud model to share,
because what you’re doing is you’re
offering opportunities to individuals
from all over the world who have talent,”
he notes.
Core is more
Looking ahead, Priyesh’s philosophy
centres on what he calls “core is more” –
focusing on fundamental excellence
rather than endless expansion. “You
don’t look to have the biggest range of
products in your store. You focus on the
core products that need to be sold
through convenience store providing the
best value to your consumer.”
This approach extends to partnerships,
where One Stop Carlton Convenience has
influenced product launches across the
Tesco family of companies. A successful
Evian water relaunch, mediated by Priyesh
between One Stop and Danone, demonstrates
how independent retailers can drive category
growth across major retail chains.
“If I’ve introduced something new, Booker
introduces it, then it also lands in Tesco. We’re
all pushing the same product. We’re all
shifting huge volumes, and everybody wins,”
he explains.
For young retailers entering the industry,
his advice is clear: choose the right commer
cial partner, embrace innovation, but never
lose sight of community responsibility.
“Community responsibility is definitely the
big one,” he emphasises. “But also, when a
young retailer is coming into the industry,
they want something that’s innovative,
exciting and new, and if they have concepts
and ideas, they need to make sure to choose
the right trade partner.”
Having worked with both symbol group
and franchise partnership models, he believes
franchise is the way forward, “because it’s a
tried and tested, structured model.”
The bigger picture
Standing in his store, watching the AI cameras
monitor shelves while his sponsored
employees serve customers who increasingly
see the shop as a safe space to share their
troubles and celebrations, Priyesh embodies a
new model of responsible retailing. It’s one
that combines cutting-edge technology with
old-fashioned human care, police-trained risk
assessment with genuine community
investment.
His criticism of enforcement agencies
stems not from a desire to avoid responsibil
ity, but from frustration at systems that
penalise the compliant while ignoring the
problematic. His Dynamic Risk Assessment
approach represents not just good business
practice, but a blueprint for how retailers can
genuinely serve their communities’ welfare.
“Being a community first retailer, it’s
really important that we understand it’s our
responsibility to ensure the welfare of that
community,” he concludes. “If we do not
ensure the welfare of that community is
looked after, we’re in servitude to that
community, and without that community,
our business does not exist.”