Pakistanis in retail and wholesale sector worldwide

Pakistan is 6^th most populous country in the world. This country is having huge growing middle class. Size of retail and wholesale market is above 40 billion us dollars per annum. To benefit from this huge sector many international retail and wholesale companies have moved in Pakistan. Metro cash and carry, makro, hyperstar etc. are some names that are active in Pakistan’s retail and wholesale sector. 

Although Pakistan has huge retail sector, but still Pakistan has not produced any international chain of supermarkets. The size of majority of retailers is small and competition among them is tough. Retail sector contribute very little to state exchequer despite having a large share in GDP. Total contribution to state exchequer is approximately 125 million rupees while 50 million is contributed by canteen store department, chain of retail outlets managed by defense ministry.
Pakistan has huge diaspora. nearly 7 million Pakistanis are living in different countries of the world. there are nearly 1 million Pakistanis in united states. In United Kingdom nearly .7 million Pakistanis are living.

Many Pakistani businessmen abroad are involved in retail and wholesale business. This is because Retail business doesn’t needs a person to have any experience or specified level of education. Many Pakistani owns convenience stores abroad. The US convenience store market is monopolized by Pakistanis and Indians. In United Kingdom many Pakistanis are active in retail and wholesale sector. E.g. Pak supermarket is owned by Khalid Hussain. United wholesale grocer was owned by Muhammad Sarwar and his brother Muhammad Ramzan. Sir Anwer Pervaiz owns Bestway cash and carry. Najib Khan owns food retailing business in United Kingdom. Syed Qamar Reza owns 12 outlet of retail24 in United Kingdom.

Pakistanis are not only active in retail sector of USA and UK but also Middle Eastern countries. Abdul Razzaq Yaqoob owns chain of jewelry outlets. He also has started ARY cash and carry.

industries produced Pakistani billionaires

According to Forbes technology is the sector that has produced highest number of billionaire in United States after investment. The leading sector in the rest of the world according to Forbes is investment while fashion and retail ranks second.

GlobalTop 10 Industries Producing Forbes Billionaires

1. Investments: 143
2. Fashion & Retail: 123
3. Real Estate: 102
4. Diversified: 97
5. Technology: 90
6.  Manufacturing: 85
7. Energy: 78
8. Finance: 77
9. Food & Beverage: 69
10. Media: 64

Pakistan has a list of rupee billionaires, although completeness and correctness of this list is doubted. Although it is difficult to know which sector produced how many billionaires in Pakistan. But it can be seen from the list that majority of Pakistani billionaires come from diversified, textile and fashion, investment, landholdings, overseas business and media.

Big business houses in Pakistan used to invest in diversified sectors to manage risk.

Pakistan has huge textile and fashion industry and is growing at a high rate. Many fashion designers have started doing business on a global scale. Names like Maria b. Hassan Shehryar Yasin etc are having retail outlet around the world and their clients include many rich and famous people including family members of royal families. Fashion retail outlet like Chenone is having its retail outlets in different cities of the world.

Pakistani stock exchange is best performing stock exchange in the world. It has generated good returns for investors. Many international investors are also investing in Pakistan’s stock exchange. Pakistan has many mutual funds which provide opportunity to household investors to invest in stock exchange.

Pakistan has large land holdings since the colonial era and families manage to keep these large land holdings in their own families through inter-cousin marriages.

Many Pakistani billionaires have got their massive wealth from overseas business and investment in other countries. Sir Anwer Perwaiz is one such billionaire who got his wealth by establishing bestway group in UK.

Media is another such area where Pakistani billionaires have stakes. Jang group owned by Mir family is well known to have earned their wealth from their media business. Electronic media is a recent entry in this field As Pakistani government started issuing licenses to private television channels.

Why agricultural business is going to be the most profitable

Pakistan is an agricultural country. Till this day agriculture is practiced in traditional ways. Pakistan has vast and fertile land and has largest irrigation system in the world. On the other side Pakistan has huge population to feed.

Pakistan’s rich and fertile land has not been used fully and efficiently till now. There is enough potential for improvement in many areas of agriculture. Presently per acre yield is quite low. The crops are much less resistant to diseases. Much of the cultivatable area is dependent on rain for irrigation.

An entrepreneur can benefit from these states of affairs. By enhancing the productivity by using better quality seed, using better techniques, employing more capital, using more fertilizer, and seeding the varieties that are more resistant to diseases.

Livestock farming also offers huge opportunities for businessmen. Pakistan has one of the lowest productivity of milk per animal. In Pakistan 8 animal produces milk as much as 1 animal in United States. Halal food is promising area. Investment in this business can be rewarding in near future.

Agricultural business can be good not only in short run but can also be profitable in the long run as well. World is moving towards an end of fossil fuel era and bio-fuel is going to be the new booming field for investors and entrepreneur. Raw material for bio-fuel will come from agriculture and there will be huge profits in this sector.

Development of new techniques and there implementation needs more capital then a small farmer can have. So by investing heavy amounts of money, bringing new techniques, using latest equipment investors and businessman can earn profits many times the investment.

Fiyaz family, Pakistani billionaires

Alshair Fiyaz and his brother Javaid Fiyaz are two Pakistani investors. Fiyaz family is estimated to be billionaire and has estimated wealth of 3 billion pounds. Fiyaz family has mainly earned their fortune from textile industry and shipping.

Alshair Fiyaz is the founder of ALFI investments, a buy-out company. Through ALFI investments.  ALFI investments hold stakes in shipping business, retailing, financial services, and commodities.

ALFI operated Illum department store and then sold it to a private equity firm MGPA. Alshair Fiyaz was also bidding for peacock fashion retailer, but later changed his mind and abandoned the rescue bid for fashion chain.

In 2009 ALFI acquired Novum Securities, a UK broking organization.
Alshair Fiyaz was also founding director of real estate firm Iron House Limited.

Javed Fiyaz, is a young entrepreneur having interests in real estate, shipping, oil and gas, commodities, mining and consumer goods. He is based in U.K.
He is presently working for Iron House Limited.
He also works for education and health in Pakistan through his charitable trust named Javed Fiyaz Charitable Trust. This trust was established to help victims of earthquake, that struck Pakistan in 2005.

Yachting
Recently Alshair Fiyaz purchased yacht which was formerly owned by H.H. Muhammad Al Zayed
Al Nahyan. Name of his yacht is Ecstasea.

Pakistani American on forbes list

Forbes has issued list of billionaires 2014. According to Forbes there are 1645 billionaires in the world. This is the all time high number of billionaires according to the Forbes magazine. the total aggregate wealth of these billionaires is 6.4 trillion us dollars.
Shahid khan, the Pakistani born american billionaires has been estimated to be worth 4.1 billion dollars.  He has been ranked 367th richest person in the world. Shahid Khan is the owner of Flex-N-Gate, an automobile parts manufacturer. He is also the owner of Jacksonville jaguars of the National Football League. in july 2013, he acquired premier league football club Fulham for estimated 300 million us dollars. His name has also been mentioned in rich list Pakistani expatriate.

Shahid Khan was born in Lahore, Pakistan. He went to United States at the age of sixteen for studying. He has Bsc in mechanical and industrial engineering.
His company Flex-N-Gate has 12450 employees and 48 manufacturing plant. In year 2011 Flex-N-Gate has 3 billion us dollars in revenue.

Shahid Khan is married with Ann Khan and has two children Shan Khan and Tony Khan.

Related links.
Shahid Khan forbes list
Shahid Khan Wikipedia

Pakistan's retailing industry big names

Pakistan’s retail market is estimated at over $42 billion a year. There are many international names in our retail and wholesale sector including metro, makro etc. There are many national brands as well that are busy in retailing business. Names of national retail businesses are given below along with brief introduction.

Canteen store department

Canteen store department is a chain of retail stores all over the country. This chain is run by Pakistani ministry of defense for the purpose of welfare. CSD sells a wide variety of products. Generally these are purchased in bulk by CSD and sold at concessional rates. Now CSD is open to all citizens of Pakistan but previously it was open only to government employees especially members of armed forces. Currently there are more then 100 shops owned and managed by the department.

RAHAT bakers

Rahat is a chain of bakeries in twin cities. There are 5 bakeries in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. All 5 bakeries are owned and managed by noon brothers.

Savour foods

Savour is a chain of food retail outlets selling primarily rice dishes.

Gourmet bakers

Gourmet is a retail chain of bakeries. There are over a 100 stores in Lahore.

Bareeze

It’s a high-end fashion retailer. It is the chain of retail stores across Pakistan, India, UAE, Malaysia, and United Kingdom.

Chenone

Chenone is Chain of fashion stores having 20+ stores in Pakistan and Middle East. Chenone offers fashion clothing, foot wear, bed linen, kitchen accessories, and furniture.

Imtiaz supermarket

Imtiaz supermarket is a chain of supermarket in Karachi serving 60,000 to 70,000 people per week. Currently there are two supermarkets in Karachi with plans to grow further.

Naheed supermarket

It is another supermarket targeting middle class just like imtiaz supermarket. This supermarket attracts nearly 4000 customers daily.

Greenvalley supermarket

Greenvalley is a high-end supermarket chain, recently started by bahria town (pvt.) Ltd.

Sauda sulf

Sauda sulf is a chain of departmental stores in twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Presently it has two flagship stores located in F-11 markaz, Islamabad and another one in chaklala scheme-3, Rawalpindi.

Pace shopping mall

Pace has 5 branches in Lahore, 1 in Gujrat and 1 in Gujranwala. Pace is owned by Mrs. Aamna Taseer, widow of slain governor Salman Taseer.

Cosmo
cosmo express and cosmo cash and carry are two types of retail outlets owned by sohrab group.