To the untrained eye, you might be forgiven for wondering how Zafar Ali makes any sales at Buckie Furniture, Flooring and Mobility. It’s impossible to have a conversation with him without being derailed by some kind of joke or story only slightly relevant to what you’re discussing. But what might be mistaken for just banter is how the businessman and his late father Nemet before him have built a family firm that has survived 42 years.
With generations of repeat customers phoning up and popping through the door, for a purchase as well as a catch-up, Buckie Furniture has an enviable local reputation. Business education from father who arrived from Pakistan with only 10 shillings Zafar was born and raised in Buckie after his father Nemet emigrated to Moray from Pakistan in the 1950s when he was just 15. Arriving in Lossiemouth with just 10 shillings in his pocket, he made his living selling clothes door-to-door.
In the early days he brought the latest fashions from Glasgow and London, including the first hot pants, to the streets and dancefloors of Buckie. It wasn’t long before he opened Elgin Drapery, closely followed by the Naseeb Indian Restaurant in Elgin, Nemet Tandoori in Buckie and the Ballerina Ballroom in Nairn. An unexpected turn in a business deal led to the family swapping selling clothes in Elgin for furniture in Buckie in 1980.
After starting in the West Church Street business taking phone calls as a schoolboy while his father visited customers, Zafar studied.