MEETING YOUNG Tia Ashraf and Ali Iqbal for an interview, as they take over the lease at Bay News, found them bright and ready to do business.
The first obvious question was why choose the Bay? Tia offers a simple explanation.
‘It was more to do with Ali. He always wanted to do something to make his own. It’s cost a fair amount of money and we are at the stage in our lives where we thought we can take the risk, and we don’t have any other responsibilities’
As the story unfolds it becomes clear that there is more to their decision than just the newsagents.
The planning was intelligence led in more ways than one.
Tia is a full-time research scientist with a degree and MSc, working with a major pharmaceutical company in Horsham on issues related to cancer research. Her time with the business is limited to weekends and some early starts, so of course there was the question of the commute to fit into the equation.
Ali with his business studies background is the key to the weekly profile of the shop, so their search involved a lot of leg work, visits and thinking, before they made the decision.
Tia takes up the story again
“Our main requirement was that we didn’t want an off-licence and we wanted to be by the seaside”.
The forward planning went as far as spending a week with Angie at Bay News (the previous owner) and shadowing, to see what they made of the situation.
Both readily admit to having no business experience, with Tia confessing that she has never even worked a till and Ali explaining that his only previous business experience was limited to bar work.
What is impressive about the couple is their commitment to both Bay News and the Bay.
Part of the planning also involved coming here to talk to people. After they’d had an opportunity to find out first hand from shopkeepers more about the people and the place, their minds were made up.
They talked to the owners of the 1066 store, Suresh and Nixon, who at the time, were holed up in what used to be the off licence, whilst the expansion of their new enterprise was underway.
The impression they received was that they would be welcomed.
Ali chips in ‘we talked to people and they really were friendly’.
As he takes over the story, telling me that ‘we found a two bedroom flat and it’s got a balcony that overlooks the sea.. the sea, that’s why we like it…!!!” it becomes obvious that they are beginning to find something in Pevensey Bay for themselves.
Their commitment is not just to business in the Bay and newspapers, sweets, cards and other Bay Life essentials, but also to the place itself.
Will it work for them in this harshest of economic climates when so much is at stake for any shop in a small seaside location?
Ali at this point interjects ‘we moved in a month before we started’.
Tia and her job in Horsham has continued throughout the transition. You get the sense, in spite of their youth and lack of shopkeeping experience, that they really do mean business.
The clincher is their decision to come and live in the Bay.
We end the meeting with a look at the first few weeks and the reception that they have received.
‘It’s been a steep learning curve, very steep’ says Tia, ‘but the people’, Ali reminds me, ‘the best thing is people, they have been so so nice’.
The most difficult part, they agree in unison is ‘getting up at 5:30am in the morning…’
Writing up my notes I jot down that they have never even been to the cash and carry before, but I also underline what Ali said to me just before I left,
‘we are just really enjoying it. It’s the challenge, it is new, it is exciting, it keeps you going’.
Tia, also, in spite of her work commitment elsewhere during the week, also impressed with a view of the business blueprint. As well as having a scientific standpoint, she demonstrated a clear perspective about business life.
‘It’s about building up relationships with the customers and meeting people ever day’.
What a difference a week makes.
Another visit just to get their family names right surprised me, but perhaps given what I had seen and heard about their commitment, I shouldn’t have been so taken aback by the work in progress.
It took me back to their point about a learning curve.
Bay News for years has had traditional sweets, newspapers and cards as a set of key selling points.
Things like the traditional sweets draw children, Mums and Dads into the shop. It is also because a small seaside location, of course, is perfect for the kinds of display that have alway been the heart of what is on offer in the popular village store.
When I first came to Pevensey Bay fifteen years ago and bought a caravan at Martello. the first port of call was to Bay News to browse the local history books and to buy a bag of traditional sweets.
Tia was at work in Horsham being a research scientist when I went back.
In my mind was all the obvious points… the economic climate, the time of year, the steep learning curve, the fact that the couple are new to the Bay.
‘How was it going’, I asked Ali, clearly a little tired from the culture shock of 5:30am starts and running the shop right through the day with 10 hour stints. Nonetheless, there was a grin on his face.
Perhaps they have not just found Bay News, maybe they have also found themselves. Ali in particular, as wife Tia had told me ‘wanted something he could call his own’.
Like a practiced Starbucks barista, he flipped a big plastic jar from the shelf, span open the black lid with one hand and threw some toffee caramel crumble into his other hand.
He proceeded to tantalise me openly, with only the counter for protection from what was both a perfectly natural sales pitch and an offer that I found it almost impossible to refuse.
His eyes, like an alchemist, who has just found out how to turn base metal into gold, lit up with excitement.
There, in the palm of his hand, I saw his future.
‘Try these’ he said, so I did.
Simon Montgomery
editor, Bay Life
IMAGE CREDIT: CRAIG WILLSON
