A BRIDAL business will continue its expansion by opening a second shop in Bradford.

Noors Bridal Gallery will open its new site in Leeds Road tomorrow at 1pm, at a ceremony attended by guest of honour, Bradford East MP Imran Hussain.

The new shop, described as an upscale bridal boutique, will employ four staff, an even split of full and part-time jobs.

It will sell around 22 bridal pieces, worth an average of £3,000, and more than 100 items for its formal wear range.

Co-owners Nasreen Akhtar and Zahaeer Mahmood opened their first shop in Bradford Plaza, Leeds Old Road, Thornbury, in 2013.

Now the business is expanding and has further plans to venture outside of Bradford.

Mrs Akhtar, 43, previously worked in the children’s services department at Bradford Council until she opted to change her career and set up the bridal business.

The firm caters for wear which will be used for predominantly Asian weddings, which Mrs Akhtar says is a lucrative market with such occasions having a total average cost of between £70,000 and £80,000.

Noors Bridal Gallery also offers a number of men’s ethnic wear for formal occasions and weddings, especially for Mehndi festivals and Baraat, which is a groom’s wedding procession in North India, West India and Pakistan.

Mrs Akhtar said her business has already attracted interest from customers from across the UK.

She said: “Bradford is still our key market.

“I’m a Bradfordian and I wanted to give employment to young people through apprenticeships.

“It is important for me to work in my locality as well.

“Asian weddings are getting bigger and better. There is a bit of a fusion between Eastern and Western styles for weddings now.

“The shop will give us more of a chance to offer a five-star service.

“Social media is important for us as well as word of mouth. It is more important to us than having a website.

“The pictures on sites like Instagram show real customers who have our dresses.”

“Many of our customers travel from the Midlands, south of England and Scotland to our shop for our dresses.

“I would love to move out to another city too and continue our expansion.”

MORE BUSINESS HEADLINES