London  -  The London café of Pakistan’s most famous Chaiwala Arshad Khan has run into serious financial troubles, a year after its mega launch. The UK franchise owners have not paid royalty to Arshad Khan as promised, according to an insider.

Arshad Khan has been making polite requests to the London café owners who have refused to pay him citing business losses and also refused to pay rent to the landlord. Arshad Khan’s brand was brought to the UK last year by two cousins: Nadir Khan Durrani and Yaver Akbar Durrani. UK Companies House record shows that aver Akbar Durrani registered Cafe Chaiwala Ltd under company number 13205566.

Nadir is a UK national and Yaver Akbar Durrani is a Canadian national who lives in the United States. They registered company in early 2021 and 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 Popeye’s 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, insiders say. 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.

Insiders said that Yaver Akbar Durrani and Nadir Durrani have run into a legal dispute with the owner of the building after failing to pay rent of 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, and Yaver Akbar Durrani and Nadir Durrani announced to open several franchise “Café Chaiwala Arshad Khan” in the United Kingdom, Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and the Middle East.