The famous Chaiwala Arshad Khan brand has run into serious financial troubles, a year after its mega launch in London.
According to the associates of Chaiwala here in Islamabad, Arshad Khan is facing financial issues as the UK franchise owners have not paid royalty to him as promised, and he has been making requests to the London café owners for the promised support. However, citing business losses they have refused to pay financial assistance. They have also refused to pay rent to the landlord.
Arshad Khan had received overnight fame back in 2016 when photographer Javeria Ali in 2016 made his casual picture while he was serving Chai to a customer and she put it on her Instagram with the caption: “Hot Tea”. Arshad Khan was 16 then. His striking looks, blue eyes and a haunting seriousness on his face shot him to overnight fame.
He opened Cafe Chaiwala in Blue Area Islamabad which became a sensation and was popular with Islamabad’s residents particularly the youngsters. The visitors were more interested in taking selfies with Arshad than taking tea or snacks there. The business went well and then in 2023 his brand was brought to the UK by two cousins: Nadir Khan Durrani and Yaver Akbar Durrani.
The UK Companies House record shows that Akbar Durrani registered Cafe Chaiiwala Ltd under company number 13205566. Nadir is a UK national and Yaver Akbar Durrani is a Canadian who lives in the United States. They registered company in early 2021 and are currently doing business as an active company. Café Chaiwala Arshad Khan is located in East London on 229 Ilford Lane. Yaver Akbar Durrani has claimed he owns two dozen Popeyes branches in the US through his company AR Restaurants Group. The situation is so bad that the café never opened its ground floor section to the public because of poor quality of service, the sources claimed.
The brand was a big hit when it opened its doors last year and Asians would come from all over the UK for Chai but the poor quality, mismanagement and lack of hygiene at the café deterred the customers.
It was also reported that Yaver Akbar Durrani and Nadir Durrani have run into a legal dispute with the owner of the building after failing to pay rent for over six months, citing business losses and complaining that the rent is too much and should be reduced. Yaver Akbar Durrani held meetings with Arshad Khan in Islamabad and made promises to clear the pending monthly royalty but later on told him he cannot pay him until the business goes into profit. He told Arshad Khan that too many Chai cafes have opened nearby on Ilford Lane and that has damaged his business. Arshad Khan has been trying to keep the issue private to protect his brand and Yaver Akbar Durrani has exploited this point. He has also accused Arshad Khan of not delivering the full recipes to London café as promised originally.
When opening the café last year in London, brothers Bahadur Durrani, Yaver Akbar Durrani and Nadir Durrani announced to open several franchises “Café Chaiwala Arshad Khan” in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.
A source at Arshad Khan Chaiwala said that the Pakistani national had sold international franchises to Durrani brothers but they had broken the contract and agreement by not paying royalty to Arshad Khan and continuing to use his name therefore Arshad Khan would not allow them to use the brand and franchise anymore. “Both sides have threatened legal action against each other,” said the source in Islamabad.
During the London launch, the Master Franchisees-UK had promised that Arshad Khan will visit London soon to meet his fans and to brew karak Chai for them but later on they didn’t make arrangements for his travel to the UK as the relations soured over non-payments.
Yaver Akbar Durrani, Master Franchisee-UK, had said at the launch of the café: “I must congratulate Arshad Khan and my team for the joint venture in bringing Café Chai Wala Arshad Khan to the UK. We think it will be awesome. We should be able to open one unit by the end of this year and many more in the UK area.” However, that promise has failed badly.
