Anwar Pervez form Thathi village of Gujar Khan, near Rawalpindi, Pakistan hailing from a working class background, came to Britain with his family at the age of 21, after settling in Bradford in 1956, he started worked as bus conductor after two months arriving in UK.
He worked over time in double shifts earning £15 to £18 a week, which was a handsome amount while average was £7 to £10 per week at that time.
After working day and night in double shifts he saved about £5,000 and went back to Pakistan in 1960 after 4 years. After spending some time in Pakistan he came in UK and again started working as a bus conductor.
During his bus conductor job, he met with many businessmen, working class and students and learned a lot from them while traveling with them.
In 1963 he established his first convenience store in London’s Earls Court with his saving, to help the local community and small shopkeepers. He charged 3.5 % for his services of what other businesses were charging 10% for their services.
In 1976, he set up a warehouse in Acton area of west London with very small seed money
The company then named Bestway now stands as a strong business group with stakes from cash-and-carry to pharmacy. The company is now a multibillion-pound enterprise and his son, Dawood, is the trading director of Bestway Wholesale.
He is the founder and chairman of Bestway Group which is known as the Paksitan’s second largest cement producer and 16th largest cash and carry operator in UK, and also he is the Deputy Chairman of United Bank Limited Pakistan.
Sir Anwar Pervez, 84, have been estimated at worth £3.534bn making him among richest Asians in the UK, Sir Anwar Pervez is placed at number 6, in the list.
Their business in Pakistan – cement and banking – is not taken into account for the UK ranking and their ranking could be much higher if their Pakistan worth was also added.
He has been given the rank of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE); a Knight Bachelor in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and the Hilal-e-Pakistan by the Pakistan government for his services to the country.
Bestway Group has a controlling share of United Bank Limited. There are subsidiaries in the UK, the Middle East and Switzerland.
Sir Anwar Pervez’s nephew Zameer Chaudrey, the chief executive and co-founder of the Bestway Group is the second British Pakistani on the list with a net worth of £1.2 billion.
