Asian Today Young Achiever 2010 - How Suleman Sacranie Quit His Studies To Become 99p Entrepreneur

99 problems…but shopping ain’t one! Asian Today Feature 99p Shopper

99 problems…but shopping ain’t one!

How student Suleman Sacranie quit his studies to become 99p entrepreneur!

A YOUNG Leicester entrepreneur is becoming a household name – thanks to his budget online shopping website!

Discount shopping website 99pShopper.com caused a sensation when it launched on the web in August, offering popular brand-name items at just 99p or less.

The site was launched by 21 year old Suleman Sacranie who is already hoping to franchise the concept and expand into shops across the UK and Europe.
The site is proving to be a hit with ex-pats eager to snap-up their favourite British food brands online and is also already popular with UK based bargain hunters with an amazing 12,000 orders taken in the first two weeks of trading.

Suleman said the idea for 99pShopper.com was inspired by his father Aziz, a former shopkeeper from Leicester.
“I grew up above a small supermarket so it's fair to say retail is in my blood,” Suleman told The Asian Today.

“My Dad opened the shop on the day I was born – dashing out of the hospital to sign a contract and then dashing back again to be at my mother's side.
“My Grandad also has a string of shops in Leicester so I grew up around business and that certainly rubbed off on me.”

But despite this family background in retail when it came to launching his own business Suleman said he faced some opposition from his family.
He said: “My parents urged me to go into one of the professions rather than go down the business road. So I ended up studying chemistry at Leicester University but the academic life just wasn't for me.”
He was so unhappy that he decided to launch his own business and has now placed his chemistry studies on indefinite hold while he concentrates solely on 99pShopper.com.
He said: “The idea came to me last summer. I was lying in the bath racking my brains. I knew I didn't want to return to university where I was bored and unfulfilled.

“I was thinking about my Dad's shop and the rise of discount stores such as Poundland during the recession. It hit me like a bolt of lightning. Why don't I build an online discount store? A shop that sells everything you can get in a supermarket but all for 99p or less.

“I jumped out of the bath and ran to tell my dad. He immediately said, 'Brilliant idea let’s make it happen.' His support was really fantastic.”
Family connections helped when it came to sourcing suppliers but turning his business dream into a reality wasn't all plain sailing. Suleman had problems with web developers before finally finding the right company to build his site.

He said: “The one piece of advice I would give to any other entrepreneurs is don't outsource your web development outside the UK. I tried and it was a terrible experience. It's taken every ounce of my determination and self belief, to come back from that and make the site a success. I finally found a great UK based developer who has helped me to create a site I'm very proud of.”

Suleman's web developers have helped him create an easy to use site which presents his bargains well and which has already had a huge impact with British shoppers.
A return to chemistry studies looks unlikely.

For Full Article Please Click Here

99p Shopper Feature On BBC News

Entrepreneur age 21 aims for boost to household name


A young entrepreneur from Leicester, who started his first business at 17, is hoping to develop his latest venture into a household name.

Suleman Sacranie launched his third company, 99p Shopper, in July 2010, shortly following his 21st birthday.

The online discount store is targeted at ex-patriots living in the EU who miss British food and drink brands.

Sacranie is keen to encourage other young people to transform their business ideas into reality.

The former University of Leicester student said he sympathises with the difficulties graduates face when confronted with tuition fee debts and a battle for jobs.

However he believes that it is important people take a proactive approach to their future careers.

"While you're a student you have so many ideas in your head.

"If you take what you want to do forward and you gain that experience before you go into the world of work, you stand out from the crowd way before you've even completed your degree."

Keeping focus

Sacranie puts his own success down to passion and perseverance.

"I think it's just being driven and knocking on the door as much as anyone shuts it on you.

"Just keep going and going, and eventually someone will open it."

He is now focused on building his web business into a recognisable brand, buoyed by its initial success.

"We've started to build a very strong online presence, we've got a lot of orders coming through, a lot of repeat customers coming across.

"I think we really want to build a firm platform on the internet now because the internet seems to be the next step forwards for everybody.

"Everyone does their shopping on the internet these days."

For Full Article Click Here

99p Shopper Feature In Woman’s Own Magazine

This week we featured in Woman’s Magazine with food prices up by 58% we have helped thousands of shoppers slash their weekly shopping bill

Get your weekly groceries for 99p per item or less at this marvellous online store - Web User Magazine Feature 99p Shopper

Get your weekly groceries for 99p per item or less at this marvellous online store.


Putting Amazon’s over-priced Grocery arm to shame, this site lets you buy a broad selection of food, drink and household products for less than a pound per item. Although 99p Shopper won’t win any prizes for design, the savings are amazing and there are plenty of familiar supermarket brands to choose from. The ordering process is easy, with bigger discounts if you buy in bulk, and UK delivery costs a flat rate of £5.99 and takes just two days. The site also delivers across Europe, which makes it appealing to ex-pats who miss their Bovril, and is sure to prove popular with bargain-hungry shoppers, especially as its stock expands to include more products.

Reviewed in: Issue 248 (9 September 2010)

For Full Article Please Click Here

Home Treats For Less Than A Quid - Living Spain Feature 99p Shopper Officially The Cheapest Supermarket In The UK!

As we continue to deliver British Ex-Pats weekly shopping to Spain the word is going round, Living Spain Magazine picked up on this and featured 99p Shopper in this month’s edition

We can now celebrate, Online 99p shop with delivery - YHP Feature 99p Shopper

We can now celebrate, Online 99p shop with delivery- Suleman Sacranie

I recently got the chance of speaking to Suleman Sacranie, founder of 99pshopper.com, a really cool guy with an interesting idea and something that i will think will go far, it’s definitely going to be huge.

Rather than walking to your favourite shop, or maybe you forgot to do your weekly or monthly shopping, or you recently cut down the budget for your weekly shopping.

99pshopper.com offers you products for 99p with delivery, just think 99p store but online and delivery. Cool right? Now start ordering!

Now to the interview, hope you enjoy it!

Hi Suleman, how are you? Great of you to join us on YHP

I’m very well thanks, before we proceed I just wanted to say what YHP do is an inspiration to why today we have successful entrepreneurs that take the chance and start up their own business, it’s a pleasure speaking to you Joseph

Thanks man, i truly appreciate that, I’m so psyched about this interview, so let’s dive in.

Before we start talking about how you started your business, can you quickly give me some background information about yourself?

Well, my name is Suleman I was brought up in Leicester a city in the midlands, on the day my mum was giving birth to me my dad opened his first Supermarket in Leicester a former Co-Operative store which for the next 15 years of my life I grew up in, living above the shop meant when it got busy my mum had to bring me in the shop to keep an eye on me and as you can imagine a child never stays in one place so I had a box tied to the shelf so I couldn’t move, but this is where my entrepreneurial spirit all started, as I watched my dad develop the business from scratch into the backbone of the family .

(Laughter) this is probably the funniest, most random and favourite introduction I’ve had so far, i like it

Let’s first go back a bit, how did you get into business? What was your motive then? What inspired you?

Business has been going way back from my granddad and my father, and my father has always been the one that inspired me to go into business.

We talk nothing else but business between us and it really frustrates my mum and my younger brother as we are always looking at what we can do then realise it’s like 3 AM!

I can relate to that, time flies when you’re talking business

I always thought I would go down the academic route having completed my A- Levels in Chemistry, Biology & English Language. I started my degree course off at University Of Leicester in Chemistry when I realised that this was not for me whilst in lectures I would always be thinking about business, coming up with ideas that I wanted to pursue without any research.

My motive was financial freedom and to be self employed, when i was 17, I realised I couldn’t work for anyone whilst working at a bank call centre, I always used to say to myself, how could this people be in this position, I used to get in trouble for telling them how they could improve and later realised and told myself ,if this is the working world then It’s not for me as I need to voice my opinion and the only way I can do this is by developing my own business and being my own boss! However I realised it was easier said than done

So you sold your first company when you were 19, tell us about this company and why did you decide to sell it?

At 19, I applied for BBC Dragons Den Online, my video pitch appeared online and never did I think 8 hours later I would be planning a flight to the US, the concept was a software to teach children to keep away from guns and knives to be honest I didn’t have a clue where I could take the business, like I said I used to have the most crazy ideas but not know what to do with them and when the offer came up to cash in I knew it would be the best option as it would enable me to further myself and having some capital to embark upon something else

What were you doing before you started this company?

Before I started this I was doing my A-Levels at college. I am not academically the most able but I get by, and surprised myself by managing to get a place on a degree course at one of the best Universities in the UK.

So to 99pshopper, how did the idea come about? What is the story behind it?

Well, you are going to laugh Joseph when you hear the story behind it, me and my dad were just having a laugh about it earlier. It was about midnight a year ago and I was in the bathroom and something just hit me like a bolt of lightning.

I always knew internet was the way forward and then thought to myself people don’t have time to even do their weekly shopping, we are in a recession we all want things cheap.

I ran out of the bathroom and my parents were sleeping, i switched on the light and shouted 99p Shopper!
My mum thought we had a thief in the house and my dad half a sleep goes “what an amazing idea”, this is where it all started.

But going forward it was easier said than done, I thought I could develop a cheap website so i found a company in Bangladesh thinking within two weeks’ time I will be launching 99p Shopper, without a clue of what stock I was going to have on the site, the company doing the website had no clue about what they were doing, I was doing more of the web design than they were and lost £500.

I finally decided to tell them to stop the work and for a month I walked the streets of Leicester wondering how am I going to make 99p Shopper happen, I was getting lots of web quotes equivalent to prices of houses which was really shocking for me, but like they say “if you keep trying something will eventually come up”, I went to London, Glasgow, Bristol searching for a web company and i finally found one which was based in Nottingham less than 30 mins from me.

I met the most amazing web company Eventure Internet.

Mark Storey the Director at the company has been the man behind the success of 99p Shopper, he has put all his knowledge in making sure we launch the most exclusive food site on the internet, without him we would not have built 99p Shopper today. We used to meet up every week in Nottingham working on designs going through the development features and 4 weeks ago we launched 99pShopper.com.

I was just browsing through the website and let me get this straight; customers come on the website and order products and get them delivered to their doorstep?

Yes, it’s that simple Joseph, simply add the products to your basket, we have a Save With A Case option which enables bulk buyers to save more money on their shopping so you can buy an individual product or purchase a case, once you complete the checkout process we receive the order at our picking centre, the order is then picked and dispatched to the customer usually within 48 Hours.

So let me get this straight, you guys have a delivery centre, and this is where all the products are stocked, once a order is made, you go to your delivery centre and get the item delivery to the person, right?

Yes simple as that

How much items do i need to order for my stocks to be delivered?

There is no restriction like you have with many other supermarket sites you can spend what you want and order how much you want, the concept is to give flexibility to customers hence why we have no restrictions

You know what i know some of the YHP audience will be wondering how you’re making money, what is your business model?

The business model has always been to keep the company as an online brand; we buy stock in quantity enabling us to pass the savings onto our customers hence selling branded products at 99p & less. But over the last 4 weeks we have had 200 franchises enquires to open stores across the UK. With Supermarkets making huge percentage mark ups, we don’t work on the high profit scale yet working on quantity and keeping all our customers happy.

To be honest, i really like the idea, you know the idea of buying things online for 99p an then you have the delivery aspect of it, it’s pretty cool, i just saw crunchy nut on there for 99p, i guess i will start my weekly shopping as soon as this interview is done, you know by the time i spend £20, I’m sorted! And i do believe that this is something that is really going to go viral or crazy as soon as people start realising it exists? University student will love this

This is the concept joseph, by launching 99p Shopper we are enabling everyone to shop for big brands at low prices, with families having to make cut backs etc. food shopping has been made a lot harder this way for example Crunchy Nut retails for £2.39 in the Supermarkets by the time you add your weekly shopping to your supermarket bag and with our prices of 99p and under you can clearly see the huge savings customers will be making.

To be honest it has been viral crazy the media are picking up on this and writing about 99p Shopper, I am getting text messages from friends saying I have just seen you in the Mail on Sunday etc. not even being aware it is pretty cool.

But the growth of the company in this month has smashed all expectations I had and I am looking forward to developing the company and taking it as far as I can, I think the ex-pat market place is another that we didn’t think we would get any response from, Mark suggested lets have European option in doing so we are shipping customers weekly shopping to Paris, Munich, Madrid, Milan and many other places across Europe.

One problem that i think a lot of people have with the whole 99p issue, is about quality, how are you able to keep your prices low and still maintain quality and I’m sure making profit at the same time?

This is where the experience of my father has been so needed, as he has over 30 years of experience in t
his trade when it came to sourcing the big brands in doing so at the prices I wanted, he has the knowledge of where to go and the methods of doing so and since we have had suppliers contacting us and this has enabled us to go from 200 products to a range of over 2,000 products and this has continued to grow.

Have you started getting orders so far?

So we far we have had 12,000 orders from customers across the UK & Europe

How have you been advertising and generating awareness so far?

To be honest, this has been going on for a month now and with our fasting month I have not really had chance to focus on any kind of advertising, but clearly word of mouth is the biggest kind of advertising out in there as people are hearing about us from their friends and the word is going round

You secured a £100,000 sponsorship from eventure funding to set up the website right? How did that
happen? What do they get from the deal?

Well Joseph as i mentioned earlier, the way I wanted the website was not going to be cheap and I am a very hard person to please and having discussed this with Eventure, they are investors in people and they invested in me. All our internet marketing and campaigns that will be working will only be done by them.

I rate them as the UK’s best web company as they care about delivering the very best and I am already looking at developing new concepts with them

Have you got any plans in expanding the business up a bit? I read something about you looking to go into partnerships with Tesco? Is there anything concrete on that?

I’m not sure where the Tesco thing came from but we’ve had major Supermarkets contact us in going into partnership, but at this moment in time this is not something or direction i want to go in, I want to make 99p Shopper a household name and looking forward to developing a franchise model to open retail outlets across the UK.

Although the offer from a UK Supermarket was concrete it just seemed to be going away from what I wanted to do with 99p Shopper, it was the biggest decision of my life but I stand by not agreeing to it but there is no truth in the Tesco deal, we have not had any contact from Tesco.

So guys are actually not distributing, you have an agreement with a distribution firm to deliver the products right?

This was the initial agreement until they realised that it was not going to be 100 deliveries a week and this is where the biggest nightmare happened as the distributors could not cope with the number of orders, we had to make sure we held the stock and dispatched it to our customers so before customers were receiving their shopping in two different deliveries now all shopping is delivered to the door in one package.

I guess with business you start off in one way and things change as the business develops but if you are making changes like this within a week it is very difficult and we had to make these changes as well as
making sure all our customers’ orders were fulfilled and by working 24/7 we pulled it off.

This is crazy, but before we go forward, i want us to go back a bit; you were studying chemistry at Leicester university right? First of all, how did a sales man/business man end up studying chemistry?

To be honest Joseph I get asked that question every day and even I don’t have an answer to that question, all I can say is I had an amazing Chemistry teacher in Julie Russell and she made me a good student at Chemistry and really I was not going to do anything else but looking back Chemistry taught me many skills that i have used today such as problem solving, calculations and many other things that all link back to Chemistry

Why did you decide to drop out, i mean you have just a year left right? Why not finish it off and then concentrate on your business?

My parents said the same thing to me, but when you want to do something so badly, no matter how much you want to delay it you will constantly be reminded of it and I am one of those people that has to do something as soon as it is in my head I can’t hold it out for 2 years to carry it out.

I guess it’s good you din’t wait for 2 years, I might be the one running 99pshopper now ..Laughter..

Suleman: Laughter

You could say i tried postponing 99p Shopper but couldn’t get it off my head, I tried the uni stuff out but my heart wasn’t in it, I just wanted to be my own boss and when I want something I have to work on it instantly and constantly this was no different, and looking back I don’t regret it, not one bit.

And when you read about 150,000 students not getting into University and here’s me saying the economy can only grow with new business coming into the market to enable jobs to be created, i guess you could say it is an amazing time to start your own business!

What has been the hardest part of building the business so far?

Where do I start, I told you about the website dilemma, at the moment Joseph it’s all really hard work but I would say raising that initial capital was the hardest part as they say there is support of start-ups out there I looked and couldn’t find anything I was fortunate to win an Enterprise completion at the University Of Leicester that gave me £5,000 funding to get going as well as the success I had later on with the sale of my first company

What would you say has been the most valuable lesson you’ve learnt so far?

Keep friends and business separate, starting up your business is very personal and when things are not going well I get very frustrated and angry and this sometimes can come across in the wrong way so I would always suggest build your team around yourself and don’t treat your business as a day with your mates.

Secondly never get your work outsourced, yes you will pay a lot less but if something goes wrong and you need to be able to have the matter resolved right way, you might end up waiting for two weeks just to get through to the company, I learnt one lesson, “pay monkeys expect peanuts” and that is what I realised when I initially outsourced 99p Shopper

If you could go back, what one thing would you do differently?

I wasted three months having the web site developed in Bangladesh and it drained me, I was left frustrated and didn’t know whether to turn left or right, I would have used a UK based company from the get-go but then again I believe everything happens for a reason and it was a lesson I learnt and it was hard at the time but looking back it was part of the journey to get to where we are today .

I know you’ve been so busy of late, i know you are fully booked during the week, i know how you had to squeeze me in for the interview, how do you keep the balance between work and rest? What do you do for fun at the moment, to take the edge off?

Balance between work and rest, well I actually have to think about that one, I am always on the go but I make sure I have a complete rest day on Friday, this is when I can catch up on TV, enjoy a day with the PS3 and do what every other 21 year old does. Saturday is my day to sleep I don’t get up till late afternoon but I need these two days just to take the edge off things.

Saying that I am 21 but my hair is nearly all white and my mum is chasing me with a hair dye every day so I know to take it easy but when you are so passionate about something it is very hard to relax and take your mind off things

What advices or tips could you give to aspiring young entrepreneurs looking to kick start their start-ups?

You will get days when you wish why am i doing this, we all do but remember this much just thinking about starting your own business is the biggest step forward, raising finance is difficult but look at what can you do to kick start things before 99p Shopper went live to raise funds I was running a pilot on eBay and raising funds from this.

Never let anyone tell you your idea is not going to be successful as with determination and hard work you can make anything work

If you are looking at using a web company, use a UK company so you have constant contact with your web company

Get a mentor in place from day one, someone you can go to and get advice not be told what to do, but get suggestions and then make your own decision.

Go to these free workshops to get you off the ground they are free and you will meet likeminded people and you never know the one person you may meet may just be the one to kick start your business

You get told by a lot of people focus on your business plan but my advice would be to work on making the idea happen, put all your effort in winning the hearts of your customers/clients and this will all come together
Look at funding around you, Enterprise Inc gives £5,000 to kick start your business dream, St Thomas White Charity give £12,000 interest free over 12 years.

Don’t give up I never thought 99p Shopper would ever go live looking back just 12 months ago, these were the hurdles I was going through and you have to fight though these things and come out stronger

So what should we be expecting from you next?

Over the next 12 months we are looking at making 99p Shopper a household name with meetings with Venture Capitalist coming up, I am looking at taking the company to the next level and fingers crossed we should be having 99p Shopper stores across the UK

Thanks suleman, hope to catch up with you soon.

It’s my pleasure speaking with you Joseph thanks for this opportunity


For Full Interview Please Click Here

‎99p Shopper Feature On Spanish Talk Radio Europe

Talk Radio Europe Invited 99p Shopper founder Suleman Sacranie to discuss how the company has focussed on branded weekly shopping at affordable prices, Maurice Boland talks with Suleman, with 99p Shopper supplying 4,000 households in Spain their weekly shopping this was a perfect opportunity for the Spanish to hear from the man behind it all

‎99p Shopper Feature On BBC Radio Leicester

99p Shopper Founder Suleman Sacranie is interviewed by BBC Radio Leicester's Julie Meyer discussing the launch of 99p Shopper over breakfast leaving Julie Meyer lost for words. 4 weeks on Daily Mirror have confirmed 99pShopper.com as the cheapest supermarket in the UK beating Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda & Morrisons

OFFICIAL - Daily Mirror Confirm 99pShopper.com as the cheapest Supermarket In The UK Beating Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda & Morrisons

It is Now Official 99pShopper.com are the cheapest Supermarket in the UK. We hit the Cash for Queens Front Page in the Daily Mirror with shoppers across the UK saving 40% compared to shopping with Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda & Morrison’s

Entrepreneur Causes A Stir With 99p Site - Eastern Eye Feature 99p Shopper Founder Suleman Sacranie

This week we hit the front page of The Eastern Eye.

Excel Magazine - The 99p Entrepreneur

The 99p Entrepreneur

Suleman Sacranie dropped out of university to launch online discount operator 99p Shopper in July and, at the age 21, he already has dreams of floating the company.

How did you get started with 99pShopper?

The concept came to me while I was lying in the bath. At the time online shopping had taken off and I was thinking that if I opened one store I could only attract local customers, whereas with an online proposition I can aim at the whole European market.

What's the appeal for shoppers?
It is the first discount store selling goods online at 99p. This makes it convenient for such types as ex-pats who want to get hold of their favourite British brands.

How did you finance the idea?

I started with £500 in my bank account and was trying to get companies to support the project. I approached a variety of backers but was rejected. At first I thought I could get a £300 website that looked a million dollars but that wasn't the case. In the end I went to around 28 different web companies – I was initially quoted £35,000 but managed to get my site set up for £5,000.

What growth opportunities can you see for the firm?

Recently we have had more than 500 franchising enquiries from people interested in opening stores across the UK and Europe and we are looking at getting a franchising model in place. Once we have the retail outlets I am hoping to float the company.

What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs?

Do not outsource your web development outside the UK. I tried and it was a terrible experience. It has taken every ounce of determination and self belief to come back from that and make the site a success

For Full Article Please Click Here

This Is Money Feature 99p Shopper

Suleman drops out for online 99p store

With rising food prices, shopping around for a cheaper deal is high on the agenda for consumers, which is good news for entrepreneur Suleman Sacranie.

Suleman, 21, abandoned his chemistry degree at Leicester University, to launch discount food website 99pshopper.com earlier this month.
The site offers brand-name products and everything is priced at 99p or less. Further reductions are available to bulk buyers.

Suleman, from Leicester, says the idea was inspired by his father and grandfather, who have run a string of shops.

'Last summer I knew I didn't want to return to university. I was thinking about the family's shops and the rise of discount stores during the recession and came up with the idea of an online discount store.'

The site registered 12,000 hits in the first two days and Suleman says about 50% of those visiting the site go on to spend money.

About 40% of orders come from expats in Europe and Suleman is considering expanding overseas.

'Most online retailers work on a two per cent ratio of buyers to visitors. For us the ratio is closer to 50%,' says Suleman.

And although 99pshopper.com can't match the huge profit margins of the major supermarkets, with a strategy of careful product selection and volume sales, the business is aiming for a margin of ten to 15%.

Growing interest from expats - about 40% of orders have come from Brits living in Europe - has prompted Suleman to consider franchising the concept and expanding overseas


For Full Article Please Click Here

Financial Times Feature 99p Shopper

Staying at university wins out over entrepreneurship

The entrepreneurial dream of dropping out of university to develop a hugely successful start-up appears to remain just that in the UK, according to official higher education figures.

This week’s revelation that competition for university places this year will be more intense than ever is supported by data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency that show the number giving up their studies has hardly changed in recent years.

Figures for 2008/09, the latest available, show that 8.6 per cent of full-time first degree students across the UK dropped out of their course during the year, slightly down on the 9 per cent who did so in 2003/04.

These figures will provide depressing reading for those who believe the UK needs to ape the US, where companies such as Microsoft, Apple and Facebook were all formed by entrepreneurs who quit college to pursue their business plan.

But, it is not to say that many Britons do not take this route each year.

Jessica Ratcliffe has put her business management degree on hold to pursue her idea for a computer games exchange, called Gaboom. “When you are busy raising money, it is hard to justify going to lectures on modern management,” the 19-year-old said.

Another example is 21-year-old Suleman Sacranie, who dropped out of a chemistry degree to launch 99pShopper, the discount shopping website.

“My parents urged me to go into one of the professions rather than go down the business road . . . but the academic life just wasn’t for me,” he said.

Tim Barnes, executive director of UCL Advances, which tries to foster greater entrepreneurship among students and staff at University College London, said part of the reason so few undergraduates quit their studies to launch a start-up is that the concept is flawed.

“Bill Gates had a brilliant idea that no one else was doing so he was already as good as anyone else,” he said. “Other people, however, need to acquire more knowledge.”

For Full Article Please Click Here

Mail On Sunday - Suleman Drops Out For 99p

Suleman drops out for 99p

WITH rising food prices, shopping around for a cheaper deal is high on the agenda for consumers, which is good news for entrepreneur Suleman Sacranie.

Suleman, 21, abandoned his chemistry degree at Leicester University, to launch discount food website 99pshopper.com earlier this month.

The site offers brand name products, with everything priced at 99p or less. Further reductions are available to bulk buyers.

Suleman, from Leicester, says the idea was inspired by his father and grandfather, who have run a string of shops. ‘Last summer I knew I didn’t want to return to university. I was thinking about the family’s shops and the rise of discount stores during the recession and came up with the idea of an online discount store.’

The site registered 12,000 hits in the first two days and Suleman says about 50 per cent of those visiting the site go on to spend money.

About 40 per cent of orders come from expats in Continental Europe and Suleman is considering expanding overseas.

‘Most online retailers work on a two per cent ratio of buyers to visitors. For us the ratio is closer to 50 per cent,’ says Suleman.

And although 99pshopper.com can’t match the huge profit margins of the major supermarkets, with a strategy of careful product selection and volume sales, the business is aiming for a margin of ten to 15 per cent.

Growing interest from expats – about 40 per cent of orders have come from Brits living in Europe – has prompted Suleman to consider franchising the concept and expanding overseas

For Full Article Please Click Here

99p Shopper Praises Telecoms Supplier

After going live in July 99p Shopper has had fantastic growth not just in the UK but also abroad.

It took founder, Suleman Sacranie, many months of painstaking strategic planning so that when the website launched everything was in perfect working order.

Careful consideration had to be given not just to the website and distribution centre but also to how phone calls would be handled from the website.

Suleman chose leading telecoms supplier DBS to provide the 0844 contact number used on the 99p shopper website.


“We wanted a telecoms supplier that was long established and had a proven track record,” explained Suleman. “We were impressed from day one with DBS in terms of their customer service. Connection of our 0844 phone number was lightening quick and we were pleased to see that DBS was committed to its customers and its own staff – they are actually an Investors in People company.”

DBS offers a wide range of telecoms services – not just 0844 numbers. They provide literally thousands of 0800 numbers to UK businesses and are an OFCOM authorised telecoms reseller Their range of 0845 services are also very popular with UK based companies.

David Clarke of DBS said “We are very pleased to welcome 99p Shopper on board as a DBS Telecoms customer. They have got off to a great start and we wish them all the very best of luck – this is a great venture!”

99p Shopper Featured Startup In Todays NACUE Newsletter

Featured Start-up: 99p Shopper

Within the 70+ societies that NACUE engages, are some of the hottest young start-ups in the UK. In this new feature, we profile one university start-up each week and highlight how membership of the university’s enterprise society has benefited the founder(s). Our Featured Start-up today is: 99p Shopper


99p Shopper has been recently launched by Leicester student and serial entrepreneur, Suleman Sacranie on his 21st birthday. The website, which will compete with high street discount shops, will offer food and household products for just 99p. “The website will have everything you can find in Tesco’s, but it will all be 99p,” said Suleman. “It’s cheap and gives an alternative to people who are on low incomes. The new business is akin to an online version of Poundland, but with a difference.
Recalling his days growing up in his farther’s cornership, Suleman hopes his business will help families, students and other struggling in the current economic climate. Suleman is now in talks with a large supermarket chain over plans to create a discount version of the partnership bewteen Waitrose and online retailer Ocado.
Suleman first caught the public eye in 2009 when he pitched to BBC Dragons Den for his previous business ZS Media Tech, which worked to steer young people away from knife and gun crime. From his appearance and the subsequent exposure, he was able to secure a £50,000 deal from an American investor.
To learn more about 99p Shopper visit the website: www.99pshopper.com

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Online Discount Supermarket Is A Hit!

With the great demand for our range, 99p Shopper were featured in today’s Leicester Mercury. The local Leicester paper has followed 99p Shopper since its development stage. Just 3 weeks in we are looking to open stores across the UK as well as increase our online range, Due to the demand we will also be moving into our new Distribution Centre


Online discount supermarket is a hit

An online discount supermarket offering a range of popular brands received 12,000 orders in its first two weeks

Founder Suleman Sacranie, 21, secured £100,000 of in-kind help and support from Nottingham web development company Eventure.

Mr Sacranie said the idea for the website was inspired by his father Aziz, a former shopkeeper from Leicester.

"I grew up above a small supermarket so retail is in my blood," he said. "My dad opened the shop on the day I was born.

"My grandad also has a string of shops in Leicester, so I grew up around business and that certainly rubbed off on me."

But despite this family background, when it came to launching his own business Mr Sacranie said he faced some opposition from his family.

"My parents urged me to go into one of the professions rather than go down the business road," he said. "So I ended up studying chemistry at Leicester University, but the academic life just wasn't for me."

Mr Sacranie is running the business from his bedroom at his parents' home in Uppingham Road. He has secured an agreement with two national goods distribution firms to enable him to get products to customers.

Brands available on the site include Cadbury's, Kellogg's, Pepsi and McVities.

99p Shopper Feature In Todays Metro

99p Shopper went live 3 weeks ago, since the launch we are now serving over 12,000 customers their weekly shopping every week. Today Metro featured Founder Suleman Sacranie as part of the Business Special

Kenco Rappor Coffee 100g For Just 99p RRP £2.49!

This week’s talking point has been our Red Bull offer 2 Cans at 99p. We had 20,000 cans in our picking centre with a RRP of £1.75 a can of Red Bull we wanted to give a treat to our customers with Red Bull Cans now out of stock we have Red Bull Multi Pack of 8 Cans for just £6 RRP being £9.99 a great saving for 8 cans of Red Bull at 250 ml

Fruit Shoot 4 bottles are available at just 99p, Our Top Seller of Coca Cola 30 X 330ml for just £12 a great buy this is available in both Coca Cola & Diet Coke. Soft Drink cans are available with 3 cans of Pepsi for just 99p. We will be having 7 Up back in stock next week after a week of 7 Up fever

Today we have added to our Drinks range with various Slim Fast flavours in Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla and many other flavours with Slim Fast

Kenco Rappor Coffee has been flying off the shelves this week with the Supermarket Price being at £2.49, we are offering 100g of Kenco Rappor Coffee at just 99p. We had 50,000 Bottles of Kenco Rappor Coffee in we are down to our last 500!

We understand the importance of water so we offer a range of brands at just 99p, add a hint of flavour to your water with our flavoured water range. Need to go to the gym or a run carry a sports bottle to keep your breath with our Sports Bottles perfect for on the go

99p Shopper Food Range Beats Supermarket Prices

Our biggest range is our Food range with over 1500 different food products to choose from this week’s orders have been based around our Ready Meals section, with a range of Noodles, Pasta Snacks, Ready Pot Noodles, favourite brands including Super Noodles, Ainsley Harriotts Cous Cous range in various flavours.

This week’s Batchellors Savoury Rice is RRP£1.79 is available in Chicken Flavour, Chinese Flavour, Beef Flavour and many other favourite flavours

With Heinz Watch Watchers range RRP at £2.79 we wanted to change that and decided to bring in a massive Heinz range in at 99p. As well as this we now offer case offerings save more money for example save with a case options now allow customers to save up to £3

Before launch we asked parents what would they like to see in our Tins range we had one answer Kids Pasta & Spaghetti shapes so now you can shop for Transformers, Thomas Tank Engine and many other kids favourite cartoon favourites in our Heinz range

Our Tins include Soups in various favourites and top brands, John West Tuna at just 99p!
Jars include various pickles and sauces with top brands giving a perfect combination with a hot dinner after a hard day’s work

We understand breakfast is the most important serving of the day so with British Branded Shredded Wheat & Cheerios gives a perfect start to the day. Cereal Bars are now a great snack when running late so we have bought in Kelloggs including Rice Krispies, Coco Pops, Coco Rocks & Frosties with a range of Porridge as well we cater weekly shopping for everyone

Please remember our delivery service is available to households across the EU & UK so maybe a week in Madrid we can have your weekly shopping delivered to your doorstep

12,000 Shoppers Across The EU Use 99p Shopper This Week

This week has been a record breaking week at 99p Shopper, we have had 12,000 Customers shop across the EU. With the Ex-Pat customers based in Spain, France, Italy, Germany. Our low prices have been the key to our success

With the number of British Ex Pat living across the EU weekly shopping can be very difficult, a tin of Heinz Baked Beans in Madrid sells for 4 Euros. Our value for money making sure we deliver customers weekly shopping right to the door give that extra added value with branded British Food & Drink.

With the high demand in Spain, 99p Shopper will be live on Talk Europe on Wednesday. The number of Ex Pat customers now means that we have increases the countries we ship to, please see our Delivery Page to checkout if we now offer a service to your Country.

Our continuous growth has shows with 18% of this weeks orders coming from Czech Republic & Sweden alone. We are now in discussions to open our first franchise outlet in Prague

This week has shown us by giving value for money and putting our customers first is why 99p Shopper has grown to a new level

We have added 500 new lines to the store with a range of Food & Drink items. Our demand on Red Bull is greater than ever with this being this weeks most purchased product

With customers asking the question will we keep our growth exclusively online, we would like to take this time to say that 99p Shopper will always be an online brand, our aim over the next three years is to have a retail outlet across every city in the EU.

This week has been the biggest growth, 99p Shopper went live on 30^th June on the 21^st Birthday of our Founder Suleman Sacranie. We look forward to serving customers across the EU with their weekly shopping.

If you have any questions about Delivery to your Country please see our Delivery section, our success is based on being different all our products beat the Supermarket Prices and cost less than £1.

We understand today everyone is busy and want a place were they can do their weekly shopping with ease, we spent 12 months asking people what they would like to see with that in mind we had to give the best food and drink website on the internet, we thank our customers for the kind words we have had as 99p Shopper today turns 1 month old our expansion has led us to a new picking centre to serve our customers

Great Value House & Home Products Beat Supermarket Prices

At 99p Shopper we are proud to offer a wide range of House & Home essentials, our cleaning range includes various pledge polish cleaners at just 99p, our current Top Seller is our range of Mr Muscle which includes Window & Glass Cleaner, Shower Shine, Kitchen Cleaner & Toilet Cleaner. Mr Muscle retails at £2.99 we offer all our Mr Muscle range at 99p

Bloo Acticlean has been a great hit with our customers in our first week of trading from offering Bloo Original we have now increased our lines to offer Cistern Blocks as well as Citrus Blocks.
Many of this weeks customers requested for us to stock up on Flash products so our customers asked we listened check out our Flash range today why pay £2.99 when our full range of Flash are at 99p chose from a variety from Multi Purpose Cleaner in Lavender & Lemon Flavour as well as Flash Bathroom Spray

Today we have added Domestos in Citrus, Sunfresh, Pink Power & Original Blue.
Top brands including Lenor, Daisy & Comfort are part of our laundry conditioner giving a great cleans and perfect fresh clothes.
We want to give the hands for some pampering time with our selection of Dishwashers & Washing Up Liquid you can make sure the grease and dirt will be tackled and leave you a clean and shiny finish our brands include Fairy in Pink Petals, Original Green, Lemon, Lavender, & Apple flavour as well as Morning Fresh and Daisy in lemon & original liquid flavour
To all our customers we have bought in Air Fresheners with Oust in various flavours, Glade. Dettol & Air Wick giving a perfect fresh home making sure all germs are killed as well as removing unpleasant smells

This week 99p Shopper Top Seller has to be Pet Food we have dispatched over 12,000 cans of Pet Food across Europe this week with Sheba, Felix, Gourmet Gold, Go Cat, Winalot, Pedigree, Chappie, Cesar, Butchers & Super Chunks. We had run out of Pet Food for 2 hours but all Pet Food items have now been re-stocked
You can now add party candles to your shopping basket with Fiddes Candles come in various numbers perfect to make a birthday even more special