Queues of customers welcomed one of Britain’s best-known Asian bakery brands to Batley as Nafees opened its 54th store in the town.
The Bradford-headquartered business opened the doors to its new Commercial Street branch on Saturday, 15 August, bringing a prominent town centre unit back into use and creating four jobs.
The premises were previously occupied by Chocoberry, but had remained closed for several months before Nafees moved into the site.
Customers queued to get their first look inside the new store, with visitors receiving complimentary boxes containing a selection of Nafees sweets and its well-known rusk biscuits, alongside chaat and bottles of the company’s own branded juice.
The opening brings another major Asian food brand to Batley’s high street, with local customers welcoming the arrival of a business already familiar to many families across West Yorkshire.
But behind the latest opening is a business story stretching back almost five decades and thousands of miles.
Nafees opened its first bakery in Mirpur, Azad Kashmir, in July 1979.
From those beginnings, the business has expanded considerably and today has its headquarters in Bradford, with the new Batley branch taking its store portfolio to 54.
The company bills itself as Europe’s largest producer of Asian sweets and celebration cakes, with its range of mithai, cakes and bakery products becoming familiar to customers across Britain’s South Asian communities.
Its arrival in Batley also has an immediate economic impact, with four jobs created following the opening of the Commercial Street store.
For Batley, where generations of families have roots connecting West Yorkshire with Mirpur and other parts of Azad Kashmir, the opening also brings an element of the Nafees story full circle.
A business which began in Mirpur in 1979 now has its latest shop serving customers in the heart of one of Kirklees’ largest British Asian communities.
A spokesperson for Nafees told Asian Standard: “We are delighted to be opening here in Batley, which has a fantastic community. It’s great to see such a huge turnout for our first day and we hope we can continue serving our customers with our sgnature mithai and cakes.”
The Batley opening marks the latest stage in the company’s continued expansion, 47 years after the first Nafees bakery welcomed its customers.
