More than 30 years ago goldsmith Mohammed Akram arrived in Bradford from Pakistan and opened up a small shop plying the trade he had learnt from his father.

Today Kesser Jewellers has a turnover of more than £1 million - and it has big plans to grow even more.

From the modest beginning in White Abbey Road the firm has expanded into new premises a few doors away and now sells all over the UK.

Today brothers Zabair and Shuja Akram are carrying on the family tradition with the help of another brother Sohail and a handful of employees - all relatives.

As well as selling the dark yellow 22ct and 24ct gold that is bought in, the business turns out thousands of hand-finished items made on the premises.

And the partners are now looking at expanding the firm by opening new shops.

"We are thinking about opening in Leeds and Sheffield and we are redecorating the old shop before we re-open it," Zabair said.

"We moved into this shop about six months ago - and turnover has doubled.

"Now we have bigger premises we have the capacity to produce thousands of items when they are needed."

Some of the gold is bought from customers and then melted down to be recycled while the rest is bought from merchants.

Zabair Akram said the business was the only one in Bradford to use traditional Pakistani designs in the manufacture of the jewellery, which includes rings, bracelets, earrings and necklaces.

But the staff will make items from designs brought in by customers.

Wax casts are made from rubber moulds and these are then used to make cement casts which shape the molten gold into the intricate patterns.

All the items are finished by hand in the company's workshop.

It turns out thousands upon thousands of individual items a year to satisfy demand, which is particularly high in the wedding season when families are buying gold for dowries.

"The business has built up a wide reputation and we now have wholesalers coming from as far away as Luton and Edinburgh," he said.

"And we have had one generation after another of families coming in to buy gold for weddings."

The White Abbey Road area has become a well-known shopping centre among Asian people and regularly plays host to coach-loads of bargain hunters from other parts of the country.

"The area has built up around us rather than us finding a shop in the area and it's now the biggest Asian shopping centre in Bradford," he said.

"We are now in a very good spot for trade and, although about 80 per cent of our customers are Asian, we are getting more and more non-Asians coming in."

As well as the plans for new shops, the firm is now looking closely at e-commerce and has brought in experts to build an Internet webpage.

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