Pontefract Premier: ‘Lovely family’ behind much-loved supermarket to retire after 40 years

Yorkshire Evening Post

Surinder Pugal and his wife Rama opened their shop on Wakefield Road in 1985 – one of the first Asian families to set up a business in the town.    The couple announced their plans for retirement this week.

Transcript

00:00 Well my real name is Surinder Pughal but I'm known as Steve in Pontefract.

00:06 Can you just tell me why I'm here? It's quite an momentous occasion really in some respects.

00:12 Well I'm retiring after 39, nearly 39 years and I want to thank the Pontefract community

00:20 who have given me a lot of love and respect over the years which I hope they give to the new owner as well.

00:27 And the stall that you're retiring at, you and your wife are retiring from Premier.

00:33 We wanted to do another couple of years but due to health we couldn't cope with it so we decided to take a step back

00:40 and let somebody else to have a go on it.

00:44 Have you enjoyed your time?

00:46 I enjoyed every second, that's why I love coming here. I don't know what I'm going to do when I finish here.

00:53 How much have you really missed the people? Are you moving away or is your wife staying?

01:00 No we are still living around here but the reason I love coming here is because the Pontefract people

01:08 accepted me as a part of their family and that's why I love coming to the shop and talk to the people.

01:16 My days go by so easily.

01:20 Just out of interest, why did you come over to Pontefract? Because you were working over in Leeds, weren't you?

01:27 I had a business in Leeds in Meadwood before but I wanted to do something different

01:34 and I was going past this road once coming from Wakefield and saw this shop closed down just after miners' strike

01:46 and I thought this is the right location, I will have a go on it.

01:51 So I bought it and I started from scratch and never looked back.

01:55 Has there been any standout moments for you? Are you really proud of something that you've done?

02:02 I'm proud of it because when I started there was nothing there, it was closed down and it was a very tiny shop

02:09 and I expanded it to where I could manage it and it's a fairly good size now.

02:16 Apart from running the business, I love the people around here, they're very friendly.

02:23 Can you just tell us about the new owners? I assume they're going to be welcoming to the community?

02:29 The new owner, I talked to him, I know him from Leeds for about 2-3 years, he seems a very happy chap.

02:39 He's got a few more stores besides this one and I hope he will give a better service to the community as I did.

02:46 The people of Pontefract, I hope they give him the same love and respect that I had from here.

02:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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