Background
Founded in 2002 by cousins Asghar Ali and Shakoor Ahmed, MyLahore has grown into a highly successful British Asian food brand. With five restaurants across the UK, in Bradford, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and Blackburn, alongside a thriving event catering division and an expanding online food box delivery service, the company now delivers a combined turnover of £24m.
To support its growth, the business operates a production and logistics facility in Bradford, enabling it to meet rising demand from both restaurant customers and large‑scale catering clients.
The challenge
With demand increasing and internal processes becoming more complex, the team identified a need to modernise how events were managed, from customer enquiries through to booking, scheduling, resourcing and invoicing.
It was at this point MyLahore joined the West Yorkshire Business Boost Leading Growth programme to help accelerate the development of its fast‑growing events division.
The solution
Head of Finance, Mati uh Rehman, was successfully onboarded to join one of the cohorts of the Leading Growth programme to lead a strategic change project, which focused on transforming the company’s systems and operational approach. The project ran from November 2025 – March 2026, with the goal of doubling the event division turnover by 2028.
The project centres on the development of a new Events Management Portal, which is a single, digital platform to streamline processes previously handled manually across multiple teams.
Our growth specialist, Caroline Kindy, worked with Mati to explore his own leadership style, and key phases and performance indicators for the Change Project. A precursor to this was a consultation with Mati that explored the overall Ambition, Opportunity and Capacity within the business to achieve its growth, alongside a multifactor growth diagnostic. The combination of these two consultative tools confirmed the company’s initiative Events Management Portal to support their growth ambition.
The impact
The Events Management Portal will improve efficiencies across the business, and will specifically enable MyLahore to:
- Increase staff confidence and engagement with digital tools
- Reduce manual errors and duplicated data
- Speed up enquiry responses and booking confirmations
- Improve invoicing accuracy and payment timelines
- Gain clearer visibility of live events, tasks and resource allocation
- Decrease administration time per event
- Capture client feedback through structured surveys
Participating in Leading Growth has also supported Mati’s leadership capability:
“This project aligns strongly with my personal and professional development goals, particularly in the areas of leadership, change management, and digital transformation. Leading this project has allowed me to strengthened my ability to drive organisational change, influence cross-functional teams, and manage resistance in a structured empathetic way. It has also helped me refine my strategic thinking – translating business challenges into practical, system-based solutions that add measurable value.”
Mati uh Rehman, Head of Finance, MyLahore
With the Events Management Portal launching in early 2026, the business expects to unlock significant operational efficiencies that will underpin its three‑year plan to double event‑related revenue.
The improvements will also free up the team to focus on higher‑value activities; creating better customer experiences, managing larger event volumes, and adapting the system as the division scales.