Levi Roots' top tips to build a food brand

Roots blazed across the BBC TV programme Dragons' Den​ five years ago, taking the dragons [business judges] by storm with his hot Reggae Reggae sauce and even hotter Reggae Reggae song. "I was one of 30 people waiting to see the dragons and someone​ [another candidate] came up to me and said: 'What's your USP​ [unique selling point]? 

"I held up my guitar and said: 'This is my USP.' There are two things I am passionate about; food and music. I wasn't there to sell my sauce but to show my passion for the sauce that I knew could out-sell Heinz Tomato Ketchup."​

Sauce business​

Fortunately, he managed to do both by impressing dragons Peter Jones and Richard Farley, who agreed to lend Jones £50,000 to develop his sauce business.

Shortly afterwards, Jones told Roots: "There's someone I'd like to introduce you to."​ That turned out to be Justin King, ceo at Sainsbury. "At the time, me and the children were making batches of 65 bottles each in the kitchen of my flat in Brixton, " said Roots. "I hope he won't order more than 65 bottles, I thought. But, Lord a mercy, he ordered 150,000 bottles. Within three days of going on sale, our Reggae Reggae sauce was outselling Heinz Tomato Ketchup."​

But passion alone was not enough to build a successful food brand, continued Roots. Other essential ingredients in the recipe were the ability to stay focused and drawing up a sound business plan.

"There's a point six months in, when enthusiasm begins to die down. At that point, it is really important to stay focused on the business,"​ he said. Being passionate about the product helps, he added. "Because music and food are so important in my life, when I talk about food, people can really see the passion in my eyes."​

That passion and focus should be founded on sound business planning, he added. "It's really important to have a tight business plan. That's always my advice to people looking to start a food business. Get it all down on paper."​

Roots said that gaining the support of the local Brixton community had played a key role in developing his brand. "When I walked into banks with my sauces and my guitar​ [to try to raise money to launch his business], they just were not interested. I think the name put them off. ​

 Too rasta​

"People advised against using the name Reggae Reggae sauce. People said it was too black, too Jamaican and too rasta. But those are all the things that I am."​

Unlike the bank managers, local people in Brixton gave his sauces an enthusiastic reception. "Supermarket buyers are notoriously difficult to see. People should start in the same way we started by getting the local community to support the sauce,"​ he said. "We went out to get community support so that my sauces were well known in Brixton before we went to the supermarkets."​

Five years after launching the business, Roots has expanded the Reggae Reggae sauce range and added to the portfolio with chilled meals, snacks, soft drinks and, last year, pasties.

Along the way, he fought a successful High Court case, which rejected claims that the Reggae Reggae sauce brand had been developed with the key help of a Mr Bailey and a Mr Williams. Speaking after the ruling last November, Roots said: "A lot of people helped me along the road building up the Reggae Reggae business, but neither of those gentlemen played any part on that journey."​

After building up the Reggae Reggae brand in Britain, Roots said his next challenge may lie across the Atlantic. "We are now thinking about going to America with our sauces,"​ he said.