44 ASIAN TRADER 17 OCTOBER 2025
tand at the entrance of the Costcutter
store in Kearsley, Bolton, on any
Tuesday morning and you’ll witness
something remarkable: a stream of builders
queuing for Carrs Pasties, elderly customers
picking up their newspapers, and office
workers grabbing Co-op sandwiches – all
moving through the space with the easy
familiarity of a well-choreographed dance.
Kersheaup Vagadia, the 32-year-old
entrepreneur who transformed this 1,800
square foot store from declining sales into a
case study in retail excellence, has been
named Symbol Retailer of the Year at the
2024 Asian Trader Awards. It’s his second
consecutive win – he took home the Next
Gen Award in 2023 – and he’s been shortlisted
for the top prize, Asian Trader of the Year, at
the 2025 awards in November.
But to Kersheaup, the trophies are
milestones, not endpoints. “We’ve not just
left it stagnant and trading a flat line,” he says.
“The store sales have continued to increase.
Bestway Retail has supported us to keep
developing the store, not just maintaining it.”
Family legacy renewed
Retail runs deep in the Vagadia family.
Kersheaup’s parents moved from London to
Bolton in the 1990s to buy a small corner
shop. His father, Shashi, passed away in 2000,
when Kersheaup was only seven, leaving
behind both a business and a legacy of
community connection.
For a while, his uncle, Govind Naran – an
experienced retailer who runs several
convenience stores across Greater Manches
ter – took charge. But the pull of retail proved
irresistible. When the boys came of age,
Kersheaup and his brother Nilesh decided to
reclaim the family shop rather than follow
other career paths. “We wanted to do
something different, but in the end we chose
to continue the family business,” he recalls.
They took back the store in 2015, deter
mined to modernise and grow. Nilesh now
runs their online business, Exclusive Deals
Ltd, operating from an 18,000 sq. ft. ware
house, while Kersheaup focuses on the retail
stores.
Bold refit, dual branding
Two years ago, Kersheaup faced a problem.
Sales were declining year on year
despite the store’s prime location
on Manchester Road, connecting
the city with Bolton. A Tesco
Express sat right next door. The
competition was fierce, and the
market was changing.
His response? A complete
rebuild from scratch.
“We decided to go all out,” he
recalls. The £250,000 investment
included dual-branding with
Bargain Booze – a “store within a store”
concept that Costcutter was just beginning to
trial. They were only the fourth store to adopt
this innovation.
The results exceeded even their most
optimistic projections. Footfall jumped 30
per cent to 3,200 customers per week.
Average basket spend increased by £2.20 to
£6.75. Total gross retail turnover for the 12
months ending March 2024 jumped by a
staggering 39 per cent.
But here’s the twist: the success wasn’t
about the money spent. It was about the
intelligence applied.
Hot food revolution
Before the refit, hot food sales limped along at
£150 per week. Today? They’re touching
£1,500 weekly. It’s the store’s most profitable
department.
“The main thing I would say is hot food,”
Kersheaup says when asked about the single
most impactful change. “We didn’t have
much hot food offering in the previous store.
That alone has been the biggest margin
increase, and it’s made the overall store more
profitable.”
The secret lies in local knowledge. Sixty to
seventy per cent of hot food sales come from
one product: Carrs Pasties, a well-known
Bolton supplier. “The pasty is not cheap. It’s a
high-quality product, and hence it’s a high
price, but people in the area know about the
brand, and we sell a lot of volume through
that.”
They’ve partnered with Country Choice
for the full hot food-to-go range – breakfast
menus in the morning, curly fries in the
afternoon and evening. The menu changes
throughout the day, matching the rhythm of
customer missions. Those builders at
lunchtime? They’re not buying breakfast
baps.
The Co-op advantage
Walk into the store and you’ll notice some
thing: Co-op own-brand products dominate
the shelves. It’s a deliberate strategy, and one
that differentiates them from the Tesco
Express next door.
“When we did the refurb, we reviewed
each of their categories and looked against our
Costcutter planograms,” Kersheaup explains.
“We noticed that they were focusing more on
the branded products and not their own
own-brand, whereas we’ve put the focus
more on the Co-op own brand products.”
The timing couldn’t be better. During the
cost-of-living crisis, customers discovered
that Co-op products offered quality at nearly
half the price of branded alternatives. “We’ve
had many customers say our Co-op bread is
better quality than the Tesco own brand,” he
notes.
The Co-op range now accounts for 30 to 40
per cent of products sold. Fresh and chilled
sales have tripled. The ready meal and fresh
meat department alone has seen a 280 per
cent increase. When Bestway Retail recently
renewed their contract with Co-op – with
promises of even better service levels – it was
brilliant news for the store.
“Nick Russell [Head of Symbol at Bestway
Retail] contacted me and notified me about
the Co-op extended contract,” Kersheaup
says. “It’s not just an extension to carry on,
but the service will be getting better.”
It’s not easy being a small independent
trading alongside a national chain. Yet,
Kersheaup’s store has turned proximity into
an advantage.
He introduced a Costcutter loyalty card,
giving him the flexibility to reward customers
PROFILES IN SUCCESS
ASIAN TRADER AWARDS WINNERS
2024’s Symbol Retailer of the Year,
Kersheaup Vagadia, has proven that with
local knowledge and a hot food revolution,
convenience can beat off any competitor
Updating, renewing, winning
Kersheaup and Vanita Vagadia