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- Founder of Island
Delight,
Wade
Lyn, has every reason
to
be happy after successfully
cornering
the UK pattie market
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In today’s Britain, Caribbean culture is everywhere - almost.
It can be heard in music, seen in clothes and even influences the way
that urban youngsters of all races speak.
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Food is one of the last areas of British life that has not been
influenced by this group of tiny islands thousands of miles away. This
seems strange when you consider how readily Britain adopted Indian,
Chinese and Italian foods on to their plates. Wade Lyn wants to change
all of this. He launched Island Delight in 1988 and has not looked back
since. “I was working for another fast food company when I saw a gap
in the market for wrapped products,” he says.
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- LOYALTY
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- Wade
realised that making Caribbean cuisine more accessible was the key and
decided that patties were the easiest food to sell because they could be
individual wrapped and sold.
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“I got funding from the Department of Trade and Industry
because I was job creating,” he says. “I thought the funding would
keep me afloat for the first year. Initially we were selling patties to
the local fish and chip shops in the Birmingham area,” Wade explains.
“Selling to the local stores allowed us to build up our turnover and
build up a loyalty among customers.”
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Instantly Wade realised his idea was a good one as local shops
kept asking for more and more. “From the very beginning I realised I
was on to a winner,” he says.
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It was not all plain sailing in the early days of Island life but
Wade was determined not to let anything stop him from making his company
a success.
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“As a person running a business for the first time there were
lots of problems that I hadn’t considered,” he admits. “For
example our production facilities had to meet so many standards in terms
of hygiene and safety and this, of course, had unexpected costs.”
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In the early days before the cash started to roll in the banks
decided they wanted guarantees against money they had lent to the
company. “We told them that they would have to stand by us in
difficult times,” says Wade.
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The banks listened and the company flourished but Wade doesn’t
blame them for being careful with their money. “The banks have to look
after their investment,” he says. “They are lending your
neighbour’s grandma’s money and so they have a right to be
cautious.”
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The sheer over-confidence that many entrepreneurs have when
launching a company was also a problem for Wade. “One of the headaches
that you have as a small business is that you do your cash flow
projection and it ends up being way out,” he says.
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But as he became more experienced at running his company his
future projection became more accurate. “In year two we were much more
realistic,” he admits.
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As soon as Island Delight was established and started to sell its
products to the bigger stores, other producers started to try and copy
the idea. But Wade was confident that he would not lose his market lead.
“We had the lead on our competitors. Our product development put us in
front. For instance we had our Halal food for our Muslim market.”
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The nature of the food business also made it hard for any
newcomers to make inroads into Island Delight’s market. “People like
to shop in the same market places and once you have convinced people
that your product is good they are unlikely to jump ship,” he says.
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- ACHIEVEMENT
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- There
were products around when Island Delight launched but Wade did not try
to compete with them. His decisions were proved right when, despite the
recession, his company broke even two years after its launch. Island
Delight now supplies all of the big supermarkets and accounts for 55 per
cent of the Caribbean pattie market in Britain.
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Island’s sales have grown by a massive 318 per cent over the
last seven years and Wade sees no signs of sales slowing down. “It is
not the money that drives you to work,” Wade explains. “It is the
sense of achievement. I never believed the business would be this big
but there is always another level to get to. There are always new
challenges. We have surpassed all our initial aims and objectives.”
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Gradually Wade is stepping away from the day-to-day running of
Island Delight. He has a strong team and trusts them with his company.
He can now look back with pride at what he has achieved. “The thing I
am most proud of is raising the profile of African-Caribbean food to a
wider market,” he says.
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- Written by
Maurice McLeod for The Voice newspaper
- (April
19 2003)
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