Watch: Neelofar Khan discusses what can be done to support independent businesses

Since the pandemic retailers have continued to face challenges, from inflation to energy costs. We sat down with Neelofar Khan at the recent Completely Retail Marketplace 2022 event to discuss how Zabardast has approached these difficulties and what can be done to support independent businesses.

“Landlords and agents, in pre-covid days, were just signing up and not really participating. What I would love as a small independent business if for them to be an active stakeholder. By that I mean, whether it’s a turnover rent deal or a CapEx deal or they advise us and sit on our board. They need to come to the table as a partner rather than landlord and tentant.”

“You need to have some collaboration, you need to have skin in the game. Not signing up the unit and bye bye, it’s not like that anymore it just can’t survive.”

Speaking on how the cost of living crisis has effected her businesses, Khan explained: “It’s very difficult at the moment and that’s true for everybody because theres a lot of unknowns. We cannot compromise on the quality of our products, so what we are looking at is buttoning down the cost as much as we can and doing deals in the market so we don’t loose our existing customers. We have a loyalty club which we launched recently and we’re looking at franchise models.”

“It’s tough, but now we’re actively looking for franchise and investment within the business…collaboration is the only way. So we get the investment, some other people and then together with other operators we can take Zabardast to the height it deserves.”