Anwar Pervez


Sir Mohammed Anwar Pervez OBE, HPk is a Pakistani-born British billionaire businessman and former bus conductor and driver. He is the founder and chairman of Bestway Group.
According to the Sunday Times Rich List UK, in 2020 Anwar Pervez's net worth is £3.1 billion ; which makes him the richest Pakistan-born Briton in the UK.

Early life

Mohammed Anwar Pervez was born on 15 March 1935 to a subsistence farming family in Rawalpindi. He did his matriculation in Pakistan. In 1956, he moved to the UK at the age of 21.

Career

His first was as a telephone operator in the state-owned telecommunication company PTCL. There he used to work for a month and most of them were spent on anti-malaria medications.
In 1956, he emigrated to England. There he became a bus conductor and driver in Bradford. He worked seven days a week on double shifts about to a week.
In 1963 he established his first convenience store, Kashmir, in London's Earls Court for Muslim community. By the early seventies, he had changed the company's name to Bestway and was operating ten convenience stores in and around West London mostly serving Asians and specialised in Asian food: spices, rice, lentils, and meat.
In 1976, Pervez opened Bestway’s first wholesale warehouse in Acton, West London. The company has since grown to a multibillion-pound enterprise, and as of 2014 Bestway is the second-largest independent wholesaler in the UK.

Personal life

He is married to Sabiha Qasim, and their sons Rizwan Pervez and Dawood Pervez are directors of Bestway.
In 2012, their daughter Farah married Syed Abid Hussain Imam, the son of Pakistani politicians Abida Hussain and Fakhar Imam. She lives in Lahore and is not involved in Bestway.

Honours

Pervez was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1992 and a Knight Bachelor in 1999.
In March 2000, he was awarded Hilal-i-Pakistan by the Pakistani Government for his services to the Pakistani nation.