MANCHESTER, N.H. – Bunny’s Convenience has been recognized as 2024 NH SBA Small Business Week Minority Owned Business of the Year.
Emigrating to the United States in 2002, Pramod Nyaupane began his American experience working at 7/11 locations across the Manchester area, eventually becoming a manager before he would purchase Bunny’s Superette on Webster Street in 2010. Upon purchasing the business, he thought it best to keep the name it had held since the 1950s, when the original owners named the business after their youngest daughter.
“It was a staple in Manchester. I think we’ve done a pretty good job honoring that legacy, and some people have told us we’ve made it even better,” he said.
Nyaupane eventually would purchase the property he now rents to Mammoth Road Convenience, and would also open an Elm Street location for Bunny’s in 2017 at the former location of a CVS shortly after Market Basket opened just down the street.
“People thought we were out of our mind to replace CVS, but we had a different model than Market Basket, focusing on convenience,” he said. “We were growing every year before COVID and we expect the replacement of new apartments in the area to help us make up for business lost those offices that left nearby.”
Today, Nyaupane operates the two stores with his wife Bibhuti Thapa. Even though the pair both hail from Kathmandu in Nepal, attended the same college in Nepal and both migrated to the United States at approximately the same time, they did not meet each other until arriving in Manchester.
Nyaupane and Thapa will be one of three Manchester business owners to be honored an SBA event for New Hampshire Small Business Week on April 30, joining SBA New Hampshire Small Business Week Manufacturer of the Year Justin Sousa of Sousa Signs and the SBA New Hampshire District Director Award for Richard Tango-Lowy of Dancing Lion.