Bestway’s Sir Anwar Pervez has birthday tea with the King and Queen

Bestway founder Sir Anwar Pervez OBE HPk has been honoured on his 90th birthday by HRH King Charles and Queen Camilla.

He joined their Majesties for tea at the Royal Box at the Royal Ascot Races. The occasion demonstrated the King’s appreciation of the significant contribution that Sir Anwar has made to British society over his 60-year career.

In 1956, at the age of 21, Sir Anwar immigrated from Pakistan to the UK. He worked in various jobs in Bradford and then moved to London and set up his first retail store in 1963. He founded Bestway in 1976.

Through his business and charitable endeavours, he has a long history of encouraging entrepreneurship and furthering dynamism, especially within marginalised communities of the country.

The Bestway Foundation – the Charitable Trust Sir Anwar founded in 1987 – has a had a long association of working with Royal charities including the British Asian Trust; the Duke of Edinburgh Awards; Pakistan Recovery Fund; and the Princes Trust.

To date, Bestway Foundation has donated over £44.0 million to charitable causes, schools, universities and hospitals in the UK.

Every year, Bestway Group hosts its charity race day at the Royal Ascot, and this year’s main beneficiary charity was the British Asian Trust.

Sir Anwar’s tea with the King and Queen followed a cross-party event at Parliament, where current and former members came together to celebrate the life of Sir Anwar.

Held at the Churchill Room of the House of Commons and hosted by Lord Choudrey CBE SI Pk, the event was attended by Rt Hon Sir Brandon Lewis, former Lord Chancellor, former ministers Tom Tugendhat MBE VR and Rt Hon the Lord Maude, as well as Nigel Huddleston MP Co-Chair of the Conservative Party; Labour Member of Parliament Afzal Khan CBE; Liberal Democrat Peer Lord Qurban Hussain; former Foreign Office Minister Lord Tariq Ahmed; Lord Dolar Popat & Lord Philip Smith, amongst others. Guests paid tribute to Sir Anwar’s life story.

Under Sir Anwar’s leadership, Bestway has grown into a multi-billion-pound group, which employs over 47,000 people globally in the food, pharmaceutical, cement and banking sectors.