Ex Pakistani Bus Conductor’s Firm Takes Over British Chain

Bestway Cash & Carry, the retail chain owned by Sir Anwar Pervez, the entrepreneur and former bus conductor, has taken over Batleys, a rival cash-and-carry business, for£100m. Pervez emigrated to Britain from Rawalpindi, in Pakistan, in the 1950s and worked as a bus conductor before opening a corner shop in west London in 1962. He is one of the UK’s best-known Asian entrepreneurs. He formed Bestway in 1976 and was knighted in 1999.