Bhullar Brothers

Bakhshish and Mohan Singh Bhullar migrated from the Punjabi town of Bhullar, India to Huddersfield in 1952. Their younger brother Sohan Singh Bhullar joined them in 1956.

In 1958 the brothers opened their first business together, an Asian goods store on 44 Springwood Street, Huddersfield. This was one of the first South Asian grocery stores in Yorkshire, and became known as the Friends Store. It was also one of the few suppliers of Caribbean goods in the area.

This marked the start of several businesses that were part of the Bhullar Brothers chain, which became a limited company on 22 October 1964. These businesses included a cinema, which was often used by the Pakistan National Film Society from the early to mid-1960s to screen Pakistani films on Sunday mornings, a bingo hall in the Majestic Cinema, a nightclub on Venn Street and, later, the Salendine Nook Shopping Centre in 1986.

In 2003 Mohan Singh Bhullar and his nephew, Sohan’s son Inderjit Singh Bhullar, became involved in a prominent court case involving the affairs of the company. According to court documents, in 1998 relations between Mohan’s family and Sohan’s family broke down. Mohan and his son, Tim, informed Sohan’s family that they would like the families to go their separate ways and requested a halt on the acquisition of property by the company as they decided on how to divide assets. However, Sohan’s sons, Inderjit and Jatinderjit Singh Bhullar, acquired a building and did not disclose this purchase. Mohan’s family won the case; however, a deal was struck which meant Sohan and his sons had control of Bhullar Brothers. Bhullar Brothers continues to operate, with Inderjit Singh Bhullar as its director.