The Burton businessman putting people, positivity and community at the heart of everything he does.
Born and raised in Burton, Shaid Hussain has a fairly straightforward philosophy when it comes to business and life: treat people with respect, surround yourself with good people and try to leave your community a little better than you found it.
It is an outlook he traces back to his father, who arrived in Britain from Pakistan in 1966 and went on to spend 30 years working at Pirelli.
“My father had friends from all walks of life,” Shaid told the Burton Echo. “He said, ‘The most important thing is respect. Everybody’s carrying their own burdens. Everybody has issues and you do not know what individuals are going through. Try to be helpful. Don’t be a spanner in the works, but try to be somebody who’s going to be a support.’”
Shaid attended De Ferrers School and has now been involved in community work for around 27 years.
His early career included working with young people before joining the Race Equality Council. His work included helping people into employment, supporting prospective entrepreneurs with business plans and organising everything from jobs fairs and football teams to community events and a carnival.
His own journey into business came almost by accident. After delivering cultural awareness training at Burton College one day, Shaid walked down the High Street looking for somewhere to buy a drink and spotted an opportunity.
That opportunity became the Good News newsagents, which opened in 2002, with Nigel Clough doing the honours at its official opening. Getting there wasn’t straightforward, but with support from family and elsewhere, the business became a reality.
Twenty-four years later, Good News remains part of Burton’s town centre and Shaid has witnessed first-hand just how dramatically the area has changed. “The high streets are facing an enormous challenge,” he said, pointing to the number of empty shops in traditional shopping areas.
Six years after Good News came another opportunity: Café Zen. There was just one slight problem. Shaid had never run a cafe. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained,” he said.
The early years were difficult and the business initially lost money as Shaid and his team attempted to establish something different in premises previously associated with a more traditional cafe. At the time, offerings such as paninis, wraps and milkshakes were less familiar to some Burton customers, and persuading people to embrace the new concept took time. But they persevered and today Shaid describes Café Zen as having become something of a landmark on the High Street.
His advice to anyone considering taking a similar leap is refreshingly simple. “Be honest with yourself, but be honest with people. This is not a way of getting rich quick. It’s a challenge, and it’s not something that’s going to make you a multimillionaire. But what it’s about is believing in yourself and believing in your product.”
Perhaps the biggest leap came when Shaid became involved with Burton MOT and Tyre Centre. Again, he wasn’t a mechanic. This time, however, the important ingredient was finding a business partner who possessed the technical expertise that Shaid didn’t.
His partner had spent years in the motor industry. More importantly to Shaid, the two shared the same values. When asked to come up with a slogan for the garage, his partner’s suggestion was one word: “Honesty.” Shaid recalled travelling to an airport with him when they encountered someone who had broken down. Rather than driving on, his partner insisted they first help get the stranded motorist home safely. They still made their flight.
For Shaid, it illustrated something more important than any balance sheet. “It’s more than bricks and mortar. It’s about the people that you take along on this journey. Life is a beautiful journey and you’ll go through ups and downs.”
That philosophy appears to be working. Burton MOT and Tyre Centre has recently undergone a significant expansion, taking over an adjoining 11,000 square ft former insulation business premises. Following refurbishment, the business has the capacity to expand into areas such as fleet management while reducing delays for customers needing servicing and repairs.
And there is another venture on its way too. Shaid revealed that he has recently completed on another site intended for a juice bar offering fresh juices and bubble teas.
Yet despite the expansion, he insists building a business empire isn’t the objective. “I’m not actually money oriented. I’m not driven by saying I’m going to open another 10 newsagents, cafes or garages. It’s more about finding the right opportunity and the right people.”
Perhaps the most ambitious project discussed during our conversation isn’t really a business at all. Shaid is involved in plans to transform a former pub in the Eton and Horninglow area into a mosque and wider community hub. The intention, he stresses, is not to create somewhere serving only Burton’s Muslim population. Instead, Shaid wants the building to become a genuine community resource, with activities including coffee mornings and support for local residents alongside its religious use.
To secure the building, the community needed to find £400,000. They gave themselves three months. They did it in 10 weeks. According to Shaid, they did it without government grants or money from the public purse. Instead, the money was raised by members of the community through door knocking, car washes and, as Shaid put it, “a lot of making a lot of biryanis”.
“It was phenomenal,” he said, highlighting in particular the contribution made by women and children to the fundraising campaign.
Now the intention is to preserve the character of the former pub while repairing and restoring the building and opening it to the wider community.
“We need to use this space to help everybody in that community, not just the Muslim community,” he said.
Shaid also talked about instances where community representatives have helped mediate disputes between neighbours, arguing that communities themselves have a responsibility to step forward and help where it is safe and practical to do so.
“We can’t always blame the police and everybody else,” he said. “We have to take responsibility ourselves as well, as communities, and step in where it’s necessary.”
Our conversation eventually turned to something particularly close to the Burton Echo’s own heart: how we talk about our town. Shaid is frustrated by the ease with which Burton can be dismissed online. “Often you see on social media people are sort of saying Burton’s rough, or it’s this and it’s that.” But his own view of his hometown couldn’t be clearer: “I actually love Burton. I think Burton’s a beautiful town. It’s a good mix of communities. People appreciate each other. You’ll always have good and bad in every community.”
That mix, he argues, is one of Burton’s strengths. During our conversation he talked about the town’s Afghan, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, Afro-Caribbean and Bangladeshi communities and the contribution generations of people from different backgrounds have made to Burton.
One example particularly stayed with him. At the opening of an Afghan community centre, he remembers seeing the Afghan flag displayed alongside the Union Jack. For Shaid, the two flags together represented something important: remembering where people have come from while also appreciating the country they now call home. It inspired a project called ‘From A to B’ (From Afghanistan to Britain), exploring life in Afghanistan and life in Britain.
There is also a challenge contained within Shaid’s message. Integration, he believes, isn’t something that can simply be left to councils, government or the police. Communities themselves have a responsibility to get involved. “We have to give back to the community, to this country, because this is where we live. This is where we prosper,” he said.
And perhaps that is why his final assessment of Burton feels particularly appropriate for the Echo.
“We’ve got some great members of different communities in Burton, but what is important is to realise that there are people who really appreciate and enjoy the town that they live in, and we want Burton to be great. We don’t want it to be down in the dumps. It’s easy to talk negatively about something, but let’s look at the positive.”
We couldn’t agree more.
Scott Milligan spoke to Shaid Hussain for the Burton Echo on 1 September 2026.