Business and Success
Stories
Every year Afro-Caribbean businesses
add a great deal to the overall UK economic activity.
A survey in September 2000 revealed that black Britons
contribute approximately £5 billion to the UK
economy and of these seven in ten Caribbeans and Africans
support family members abroad at a cost of almost
£500 million a year [source: Foreign and Commonwealth
Office, London]. Britons of African descent are successful
in a number of professions and industries throughout
the UK. Whether it is journalism, fashion, media,
acting or business.
Dalgety Manufactures:
Suppliers of Caribbean herbal teas and authentic crisps.
The company can boast as being the only Caribbean
tea company in the UK with its own in-house production
facility which supplies a chain of supermarkets like
Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Safeways.
Hawker Consumer Publications
Ltd.:
Was first established in 1987 and has since become
a leading authority in the ethnic hair and beauty
market aimed at professionals. Its Afro Hair &
Beauty Show remains the largest hair, beauty and lifestyle
event in Europe.
Is a rapidly progressing company which partners IBM
in its complete hardware procurement services, specialising
in e-business and networking solutions. Winner of
the Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award at the Black
Enterprise Awards, 2003.
Encourages the appreciation of steel pan music and
arts, emphasising the disadvantaged sectors of the
Caribbean community. It was founded in 1967 and Ebony
is the record 14 times winner of the Panorama Competition
held during the Notting Hill Carnival each year, as
well as the Lifetime Achievement in Business Award
at the Black Enterprise Awards, 2003.
The Company, which specialises in hand-cut and tailored
suits, boasts of clients in over 49 countries and
is led by Maurice Sedwell. Winner of International
Business of the Year at the Black Enterprise Awards,
2003.
Ozwald has been accredited with taking Saville Row
to a new dimension. He was the first tailor to stage
a catwalk show in Paris. Coming from humble surroundings,
he first started sewing on his mother’s old
sewing machine and sold his clothes to fellow students,
and by 23 years of age he had his own business.
Other Successful Britons
of African Descent:
Was born on the 8th August 1966 in Dulwich, London.
At 16 he took to the USA and by 1984 he had won the
amateur Spanish Golden Glove Championships in New
York. Turning professional in 1988, he won the World
Middleweight title in 1990 against Nigel Benn and
had 43 straight victories before his first loss. Currently
he holds the record for the most unbeaten World Title
wins in British history.
Olaudah Equiano:
Olaudah Equiano, was born in Essaka, an Igbo village
in the kingdom of Benin, in 1745 and became the first
political leader of Britain's black community. He
was sold and re-sold repeatedly to slave traders until
1766 when he had enough money to buy his own freedom.
In 1767 he returned to London to work closely with
Granville Sharpe and Thomas Clarkson in the Society
for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Equiano published
his own autobiography, The Life of Olaudah Equiano
the African in 1789, which helped arouse favourable
public opinion for the abolition of slavery. During
his lifetime, his autobiography went through eight
British editions; six more followed in the 22 years
following his death. By the time of his timely demise
he had won widespread recognition as the principal
spokesman of Britain's black community.
Born in Trinidad in 1939, he joined the Caribbean
regional service of the BBC World Service in 1960
as a producer, before moving to London at the end
of that decade to work for the corporation (BBC Radio,
London). In 1973 he moved to what he has now become
synonymous with, that is Independent Television News
(ITN), where he worked hard and rose through the ranks
to become the face of ITN – winning Newscaster
of the Year twice during that time. In 1992 he received
an OBE in the Queen's Honours List, and by 1999 he
had added a Knighthood to that honour.
