CURRY BUSINESS ; APPARENT IMPASSE & REMEDY

(Part - ii)

The  Curry Story ;

Historically the Bengali community from erstwhile East Pakistan (Bangladesh now) are the  one who started the trend of setting up curry businesses; restaurants and take aways. Since, Its rudimentary beginning in the early - mid fifties of the last 20th century the industry has grown from strength to strength.

The  abundance of work force; newly migrating to the UK needed their much desired income and at that crucial juncture the curry business rendered the jobs and the industry slowly and gradually started to blossom full to the brim.  The Bangladeshi community in the UK and in Bangladesh owes a great deal of homage and gratitude to those hardworking risk taker, buzzing and maverick  entrepreneurs. 

 Who stood firm against all the odds, abuse of relentless racism, lack of finance , lack of knowledge of rules and regulations, lack of facilities from the local authorities and above all poor vocabulary to turn that boutique business into a thriving pan UK SME venture. Nothing could faze them, when the going got really tough those battle hardened soldierlike entrepreneurs got themselves going. The pioneers of the bengali diaspora’s flagship signature weathered through all the odds, impediments and obstacles.

Till date the industry is run, managed and owned by many of the descendants of the doyens. their third and fourth generations are now the proud bastions of the industry.

The new arrivals who joined the industry at a later stage by joining hands with their predecessors added an extra glorification to the business and with their flair, new outlook, and PR along with various social, political and corporate exposures the CURRY became life style choice for all most all house holds of the United Kingdom and beyond. 

There are now circa 20000 outlets owned by Bangladeshis in The British Isles selling curry day in day out. Serving in excess of half a million portions of Chicken Tikka Massala a week. Chicken Tikka Massala is the most sold dishes  ; about 20-22% of all curries sold are chicken tikka massala.

No matter how posh or opulent or up market the establishment of the curry outlets are ; they still attract more discerning guests and customers who would like to treat their tastebuds with all the favourite dishes. Those age old favourite 4-5 main dishes, 4-6 starters, 2 vegetable side dishes with 2 types of rice and 3 types on bread. These are predominantly the best selling items of their menus. In order for to quantify those; these would not be imprudent to say, these above  generic favourites constitute about 60- 65% of the total turnover of the business. ( a conservative guesstimation).

The Curry business and its paraphernalia and the backyard linkage support  chain trades alone is proving an estimated 150,000 employments in the UK and the total conglomerate gross turn over may reach close to £ 10 billion a year. 

There are a whole host of other auxiliary businesses in the UK are  thriving on the back of this CURRY industry. Accounting firms, Legal Practitioners, Travel Agents, Groceries, Distributors, Whole Sale and Retailers, Banks, Training Institutes, Millers  to name a few. The Curry business today in the UK stands like ship emulating the Giant TITANIC and those mentioned above sailing with this giant ship to prosperity on board the mother vessel.