Family celebrating 30 years service running Allenton Post Office and Store

Bhupinder and Parminder Sangha have been at the helm of Allenton Post Office since September 1993. Their children Harry and Harminder, who were both teenagers when their parents took over the branch, have always worked in the family business.

For three decades the family has loyally served this community on the outskirts of Derby.

Bhupinder Sangha had been a supervisor at the Iveco in Langley for many years before the truck company relocated to Italy. After taking redundancy he decided to pursue his dream of running his own Post Office business. They couldn’t find a suitable branch in their locality of Berkshire and London, but they had relatives in Derby and Allenton Post Office was just what they were looking for.

Their Post Office was the first sub Post Office in Derby to no longer close for lunch and to stop early closing on a Wednesday. The hardworking couple wanted to make it more convenient for customers to visit their branch.

During their three decades of owning the staff they have undertaken three refurbishments to keep the shop looking fresh and modern.

Postmaster Bhupinder Sangha said: “We have all been very happy here. People made us feel welcome and we soon got to know the community. The best thing about running your own business is the people that you meet. You get chatting to customers and we know several generations of families. We like to support the local school too.

“The community was very grateful that we kept open through the pandemic. We were really busy as people wanted to stay local, to send letters and parcels to people that they could not see and to do their home shopping returns. It was also handy as people can do their banking here.”

Being at the heart of the community, Bhupinder was honoured to be asked to be president of the Allenton Royal British Legion, even though he had never served in the armed forces.

When the Sangha family took over the Post Office the only retail was cards. Harry, who is now the Manager of the store which now also sells stationery, toys and cigarettes. His wife, Roop, has also worked for the business for 17 years.

Harminder also had the honour of attending a special Camelot Lottery awards ceremony with her father at The Dorchester hotel in London for excellent customer service and top sales of lottery scratch cards.

Post Office Area Manager, Rachel Bailey, visited the Sangha family to present them with their Post Office 30 Years’ Long Service Award.

Rachel Bailey, said: “All the Sangha family have a great work ethic and they are really committed to serving their community. They really care about their customers. I want to thank Bhupinder and Parminder Sangha for being at the helm at Allenton Post Office for 30 years and for Harry, Harminder and Roop for all that they do too. It’s such a joy to visit this family-run business.”