Jobs created as cash and carry launches 90,000 sq ft store

Saleem Akhtar (Jinnah Group), Lee Rycraft (Lloyds Bank).

Jobs have been created with the launch of an 89,000 sq ft Bradford cash and carry with the company announcing plans to hire further staff, increase its product range and grow its delivery fleet.

The United Foods Cash and Carry has opened on Planestree Road and is more than five times the size of its previous 16,000 sq ft premises on Mulgrave Street.

The family owned firm, which supplies goods to restaurants and fast food outlets across the north of England, bought the new premises with a £2.2m finance package from Lloyds Bank.

The expansion has seen the company hire 10 more staff, with more plans to upscale its butchery department and to introduce a line of crockery products for restaurants and catering businesses.

The business supplies customers as far as Liverpool and Middlesbrough, and is adding five more delivery vans to its fleet with support from Lex Autolease.

United Foods Cash & Carry expects its £7m turnover to increase by 20% after the new store opens. It forms part of the Jinnah Group, a Kashmiri dining restaurant chain with restaurants in Bradford, York, Harrogate and Selby.

Saleem Akhtar, managing director at the Jinnah Group, said: “The growth and success of the cash and carry, which started in 1982, is down to a thriving hospitality industry in West Yorkshire and across the north.

“The new store will help us become one of the largest distributors of produce and equipment for restaurants, caterers and fast food stores in the region.”

Lee Rycraft, relationship director at Lloyds Bank, said: “This is another huge drive to expand from the Jinnah Group, which also recently announced plans to open a world-food centre and hotel in Bradford.

“The group’s initiatives will help to create many new jobs in Bradford. Ambitious companies like this are helping Britain to prosper, which is why we’re happy to support Jinnah Group on its latest project.”

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