Cleone Foods wins community award for its Caribbean flavour

Jun 25 2009 By Nick Howard

A Jamaican food company in Birmingham has received a ‘pattie’ on the back for its work in the community.

Cleone Foods, which when it launched in 1989 at a small building in Aston had fewer than 10 employees and produced around 100 patties a day, now turns over £2.5 million, employs 48 staff and has seen a sales growth of 318 percent over seven years.

And the Jamaican pattie producer looks set to go from strength to strength after winning the ‘Impact on Society Award’ for a small company category of the regional round of the national BITC awards ahead of 305 other competitors.

Jamaican-born Managing Director Wade Lyn launched Island Delight patties – the Caribbean favourite and Jamaican equivalent to the English pastie – in response to the growth of Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities across England.

Mr Lyn moved Cleone Foods to its Icknield Street premises in 1994 and now, thanks to help from Business Link West Midlands (BLWM), the company has invested £400,000 in new staff and equipment.

He said: “We started working with BLWM in 2003 when we were able to access a range of marketing support which really helped secure a firmer footing in the supermarkets we were dealing with.

“We’re now in all the major supermarkets dotted around the country. We’re not only in stores near highly populated Afro-Caribbean communities; we’ve got a strong Asian following too as we do a Halal pattie. And now more and more English people are discovering us as well, and liking the product.

“We’re actually only working to a 20 per cent capacity so what we really need to grow is for the existing supermarkets we supply to invite us into more of their stores.

But Cleone foods isn’t just turning over impressive profits, it has also done more than its fair share for the community.

Over the years it has spearheaded a social enterprise revolution in the area by volunteering time in local schools and helping fellow businesses, even potential competitors. The family-friendly company has an enviable record of staff training and development – one employee has been funded through to degree level – and it also has some impressive green credentials.

Mr Lyn said: “We have a close relationship with several local schools where our HR staff visit to give interview training and I go over and talk them through their career options. We have always done business with the environment in mind. We have lights that switch off automatically in meeting rooms - and the toilets – we have full recycling facilities for plastic, cardboard and food waste.”

BLWM adviser Mike Falconer said: “To see Cleone up there alongside the likes of Coca Cola and Boots for the BITC awards is testament to the company’s good work.”