Street (UK) Client Profile – Retailer Abul from London
September 14, 2025 - September 14, 2025
Abul – Retail outerwear
Requirement: Volume discounts
With his Street UK loan, Abul got a volume discount when prices were lowest. For people in the outerwear trade, every winter has a silver lining – when temperatures drop, sales of coats and jackets go up. That’s the basis of Abul’s business at his permanent stall in Whitechapel market. He’s been selling coats in winter and dresses and tops in summer for 12 years, and customers looking for wool-and-cashmere gear at a fraction of high street prices head for his stall.
Abul knows what it takes to go from a bolt of cloth to a finished garment, down to the last button and hemstitch. Before he went into retail he spent years as a top machinist in a clothing factory. For two of those years he made manufacturers’ samples – prototypes of hundreds of different designs that are used to secure orders for mass production. Now, Abul says, “I can make any garment.” In fact, about a third of the stock on the rails in his stall he made with his own hands.
Abul knows what it takes to go from a bolt of cloth to a finished garment, down to the last button and hemstitch. Before he went into retail he spent years as a top machinist in a clothing factory
Success hangs not only on Abul’s garment-making skills, but also his deal-making abilities with suppliers, because he can get bigger discounts for larger orders. Timing is important, too – for trade that peaks in winter, the best time to buy stock is in summer when prices are at their lowest. That’s how his loan from Street UK helped him to pocket higher profits. By using the money to place a larger than usual order, Abul was able to get a better discount – and by buying when prices were rock bottom, his cost savings were dramatic. “Everything you see here,” he says, “I bought at half the usual price.”
As a self-made retailer who got where he is without outside help, Abul is in a good position to give advice when would-be entrepreneurs pluck his sleeve. He knows his industry and his market inside out. In the last dozen years thousands of coats and jackets have passed through his hands, and every season hundreds of customers browse through the rails at his stall. He knows what sells and what doesn’t, though he admits that swing coats surprised him 15 years ago (“I never thought they’d catch on”). In time-honoured market tradition, Abul’s life is based around his business. “I’m here selling,” he says, “six days a week, ten hours a day – as long as it isn’t raining.”
These are just some of the reasons Abul has earned Street UK’s StreetStar award for “people who have not only worked hard to develop their businesses to support themselves and their families, but have also extended that support wherever possible to others in their community.” We invite you to read more about Abul and his award on the back cover of this newsletter.”
