From a small corner shop to the UK’s leading supplier of spices, and still very much a family business… East End Foods is one of Birmingham’s brightest success stories
There isn’t much that the Wouhras don’t know about spicing up life. From a small corner shop selling spices and groceries, their company East End Foods has grown into a business operating out of sites in Birmingham, West Bromwich and Smethwick, with nearly 1,300 product ranges and employing 350 people. As the largest importer of ethnic food ingredients in the UK, the company supplies more than 80 per cent of Asian independent stores, as well as being stocked by all the major supermarkets. It also exports to Europe, the Middle East and even back to India – and there are plans to expand still further, both in existing markets and potentially into the US too.
GROWING COMMUNITY
What makes East End Foods especially remarkable is the fact that it continues to be a family business through and through. It is run by nine directors – five cousins and four brothers. And one of them, director Jason Wouhra said: “You’ll still see my father, who set up the business with his brothers, popping in from time to time, keeping his hand in.” Jason’s father started the business with his four brothers soon after arriving in Wolverhampton from Delhi more than 40 years ago. “Finding jobs was very difficult at that time,” Jason explained. “So they got together and opened the family store, procuring supplies from local wholesalers.