Ashan Chaudry at the NCS speaking about Triple A Foodhall

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Triple ‘a’ Foodhall

Convenience Store readers will already be aware of retailer (and practicing doctor) Ashan Chaudry, who has created with his triple ‘a’ Foodhall in Nuneaton a foodie destination for locals and often those from further afield.

This year, his store won both the Food to Go and Large Convenience Store gongs at our annual awards, and in previous years he and his team have also been major winners.

But what is it about Ashan himself that drives him to continually invest and innovate with his 4,000 sq.ft. store? Why is it such a labour of love for him, and how have the locals taken to his often groundbreaking ideas?

Ashan Chaudry_Triple A

We sat down with him at the National Convenience Show this week to give him a grilling in front of an audience, and started by asking where all his business ideas actually come from.

“For inspiration – and maybe I’ll get this from the large multiples - you have to travel. Triple A wouldn’t have been born if I didn’t do the traveling I’ve done. We’ve travelled to Canada, Toronto - Ireland is really big on food for now too. But also Germany and Austria. We’ve really travelled, and I think if you were to only travel locally there isn’t enough innovation compared to what we offer.

“I think that’s one of the key things we do. We’re just in the middle of building our central kitchen now, which will be strictly for innovation only. So hopefully we’ve got quite a few things in the pipeline for this year for the stores, but really now we’re all about innovation and really to try and lead and bring new ideas to the table.”

There’s certainly no shortage of the ideas Ashan speaks of. The Triple A Foodhall already has a wealth of food to go options, from milkshakes and pizzas to salads and even a full roast offering on Sundays.

“At the core is the fact everything’s made in-house, whether its your salad bar products or our Sunday roast dinners which have been elevated to something huge - it’s just taken off a kind of a new scale.

“On a Saturday we have something like a 10-man team that’s preparing Yorkshire puddings from scratch, roasting our beef chicken, all the veg is peeled and part-steamed ready for Sundays. Everything that you eat in our Sunday roast is done in store. I can remember our first week - but we’re now up to somewhere in the region of 700 Sunday roasts!

“We’re really proud of what we do. It’s quality that we really push on. Whether it’s our Gelato, which is made in store, whether it’s our salad bar, our scratch bakery or our Neapolitan pizzas.” That last point is of particular significance as it perfectly highlights how the local community have taken to the ideas that stem from Ashan’s research.

“With a lot of the offerings, people didn’t understand them at first. They were used to deep pan pizzas with all the toppings and didn’t understand Neapolitans. I’ll never forget my very first customer walking through the door and she asked for a ham and pineapple – which made my Italian chef looked the other way. That lady took the pizza, walked out and walked back into the store saying she asked for ham and pineapple.

“So we’ve had to re-educate. Now, we can say our customers are on their journey to knowing what Neapolitan pizza really is. You’ve got a hand stretched thin dough and we flew in Italian chefs to train our staff. That’s the level we’ve gone to. We flew in Greek chefs for a month to train staff for our Greek concept. I really want to make sure it’s authentic, and not just another Neapolitan pizza or Greek foods.”

”I’ll be honest - I can truly say that it’s not a regret if something falls off after six months. I’m still glad I did it.”

Ashan also believes that, thanks to his research, he is now managing to achieve something the multiples can’t. He also says he has no regrets with any of the risks he’s taken. “A lot of people ask me if it’s expensive. Well, yes, it is. And a lot of people say what if it’s a trend and it falls off? Well, I’ll be honest, I can truly say that it’s not a regret if something falls off after six months. I’m still glad I did it.

“It doesn’t concern me because I’ll be on to something else. But if it works it stays because what that does is show my customers the journey. I’ve elevated my offering and really shown the level that can be achieved – but it does require investment. That’s my way of showing that small independents can do something special.”