Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones, 53, is an entrepreneur and founder of The Black Farmer brand. Now the second largest premium sausage brand in the UK, with sales in excess of £7m, The Black Farmer also sells chicken and a range of sauces. In 2010 Emmanuel-Jones launched his first clothing range for men, and a
range of womenswear has just launched. Emmanuel-Jones stood unsuccessfully
as the Conservative candidate for Chippenham at the last election.
I grew up as part of the Jamaican community at a time when we weren't welcome here and I saw people living in fear. It was the time of Enoch Powell's 'Rivers of Blood' speech, and I made a decision then that I wouldn't live in fear. A lot of people in that community closed down and only spent time with others like themselves who understood how they were feeling. They treated the outside world as dangerous. I recognised that it's outsiders who bring about change.
I joined the army to get away from home. I left school at 16 without qualifications and was a mouthy git. If there's one thing the army doesn't tolerate, it's mouthy gits and a black, mouthy git back then was going to get his head kicked in. And I did. It was the best thing that happened to me, because the army is not set up for people like me who are always asking why. It is about people being trained to do what they are told.
But no one can get where they want to on their own. Even outsiders need help up the ladder. It is essential to have a good antenna to spot those opportunities. Everything I have achieved is down to people prepared to go out of their way to help me. I worked at the BBC for ten years as a freelance director and Peter Bazalgette [who went on to become chairman of Endemol UK] protected me and gave me opportunities. He knew that if he trusted me I would deliver because I couldn't live with failure. People managing others often put too many constraints on them. The greatest gift you can give is trust.
I left the BBC to launch my own food and drink marketing agency. I had started out as a chef and I made food and drink programmes at the BBC. I had plans to grow the agency into the biggest in the world, but I soon realised big brands wouldn't give me work. So I found smaller, entrepreneurial brands and people trying to do something different, to shake up a category. It makes a difference when you have clients on the same wavelength as you. Those 15 years running the agency prepared me to launch my own brand.
When I bought my farm I saw this massive gulf between urban and rural Britain. We make all this effort through Fairtrade to help farmers in other countries, but we don't care about our own. I thought it would be good to create a brand that had a direct relationship with consumers. And I wanted a brand that had the courage to do the right thing and took risks. Corporate brands hate risk. Risk is just a business word for fear. And fear holds people back. People are scared of what might happen if things go wrong. But you have to make a friend of fear and recognise things will go wrong, but that it isn't the end of the world.
Nasty, ruthless people don't succeed in business. People buy from people they like. Business is about trust.
We are sending too many people to university. We have created a managerial generation where they expect to manage rather than create. Those who don't want to go to university need to know there are opportunities for them.
The Black Farmer name was well thought out. I wanted the brand to reflect my personality. The name does everything a brand should do. It is challenging and it has jeopardy. Jeopardy is an essential part of a successful brand. If you face it head on, it stirs up interest. Jeopardy is what keeps you hooked to a good story and it's the same with brands.
People aren't sure if the brand is politically correct. In the early days people reported me to the Equalities Commission. Once you get out of London, people are far more worried about the correct language. There are lots of parts of the country where people refer to me as coloured rather than black. My brand gives them permission to use black. But one of the problems we have when it comes to race is that while people are sensitive about using the right language, when it comes to treating people fairly and humanely and all the really important stuff, it goes out of the window. Using the right word is apparently enough. That hypocrisy annoys me.
My business was built on people trying the product, then visiting the website and emailing their supermarket asking them to stock my sausages. That's how I got listings. I created an army of customer advocates. People were outraged that this poor black guy wasn't given a chance. There is a natural sense of fairness that people have and if they can support you they go out of their way to do so.
My farm is on a hill overlooking Launceston Castle. I have always thought this is where invading armies would have camped and stuck their flags in the ground while they figured out how to attack the castle. To some extent, my brand is a bit like that and so am I. The farm has allowed me to mark out my part of England and say I am here and this is what I believe — come and join me or walk on by.
The food business was going in the right direction, so I launched Black Farmer clothing. Most of the supposed branding experts said it wouldn't work. These people with their MBAs say that if you have a food brand you can only extend into food. Who says that has to be the rule? Richard Branson shows it doesn't. So I am also keen to launch Black Farmer grills.
Our society is all about rules and regulations and what is and isn't acceptable. I've always challenged that and asked "Says who?" If you look at my career — and at the Black Farmer brand — it is about challenging the perceived wisdom and asking why not? It's essential for an entrepreneur to challenge perceived wisdom. Those are the major themes in my life: thinking like an outsider and challenging perceived wisdom. Most people want to be on the inside, but entrepreneurs and mavericks think differently.
Interview by Richard Cree.
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