Levi Roots: Living the Dream

Dragon slayer, entrepreneur, musician, chef and now restaurateur Levi Roots talked to Jill Woolf, Managing Director of PR and marketing consultancy Chimera Communications, prior to giving the keynote speech at this year’s Let’s Do Business Show at Brighton Racecourse.

Jill: Welcome to Brighton, Levi. Let’s start with finding out what makes you happiest. Having achieved fame, celebrity, success in music, as a chef, on TV, books etc, what do you consider is your greatest achievement?

Levi: Without a doubt, my children. I’ve got a beautiful three and a half year old son. He’ll be four in December so he’s at that age when he wants to play football, and I can do all these wonderful things that children want to do with their dad at that age. I had seven children already but they’re all much older. Reaching, shall we say, my twilight years, this wasn’t necessarily something I’d envisaged so it’s particularly delightful.

Jill: Going back to the inevitable days of Dragon’s Den, had you properly prepared yourself for the outcome of giving away 40% of your company – and how has the input from the dragons been of benefit to you?

Levi: I was prepared for being me! I suppose that was the only preparation I could do in that respect. I definitely wanted to be Levi Roots, the Rasta Man, the Jamaican, the man with the great sauce, and not be defined by the five white men in front of me on the TV. So I was prepared to be the best Levi Roots that I could be and I don’t believe I let it change me after the programme.

As far as the Dragons are concerned, I can’t speak for Richard Farleigh so much as our partnership didn’t last for as long as that between myself and Peter Jones, but I believe the relationship was as much of a surprise for Peter and it was for me because nothing like this has ever happened on Dragon’s Den, either before or after. It really was a ground-breaking moment for both of us, having him help move on my business and realising my dreams. For Peter, I guess it was a realisation that Dragon’s Den really does work.

Jill: I watched the clip of your segment of the programme again last night and Peter Jones said “I’m in” in almost a schoolboy-ish, mischievous way, didn’t he?

Levi: Yes he did! In his words, it really was ‘a punt’. Knowing more about entrepreneurship as I do now, that is exactly what you do when you come across something which is about passion as well as work. It’s not just about the business side of it; passion is a gift from God which is going to be with you forever, and the business side is only going to be with you as long as it’s making money. If you can find the sort of connection which Peter and I found, it helps you get over the difficult times you have in a relationship, whether it’s a marriage or a business partnership. It’s precisely that consolidation which helps you ride over any problems that may arise, and I’ve had a few since Peter decided to invest in me. It’s been 10 years now and we’re still working together. We’ve stepped outside of the roles of investor and investee and we’re really good friends now. We share the passion together in building this dream of mine and are true partners.

Jill: Could you have done it without the Dragons?

Levi: That’s a difficult question. I think the sauce would have been successful because I do believe in the product, but building the brand has been quicker through the help I’ve been given. I spent over 20 years selling the sauce at the Notting Hill Carnival and people would come back year after year and tell me how great the product was, so I think it would have made it albeit slowly. What the Dragons have brought is the power of investment so the brand could grow very quickly. And I had a mentor who made a few phone calls to friends and made things happen!

Jill: So now there can’t be many households in the country without a bottle or more of Reggae Reggae sauce in?

Levi: Yes, it’s been a fantastic journey and one where I’ve almost had fame forced on me because of my appearance on the show. So I’ve had to stand outside of myself at times and watch this great waft of publicity happen, especially in the first four or five years.

Jill: It’s enabled you to go on to do some quite extraordinary things, hasn’t it, like write books and appear in films and on TV programmes?

Levi: Absolutely. I talk about having a business plan a lot because it’s important to know what you’re going to do with the business but apart from that, it’s important to look outside the business side of things and think about doing what makes you tick and happy so you can replenish yourself. I’ve been able to do all those things you mention, which I wouldn’t have been able to do without a successful business. So my advice is to make sure your business is working then you can reward yourself by doing what makes you happy afterwards.

Jill: We are at the Let’s Do Business Show today. What skills do you feel the Dragons brought on board to help you?

Levi: Actually it was more about mentoring because they were investing in the person rather than giving specific skills. They’re not trying to molly-coddle you, they’re investing in you because they see that you can run the business and then they’re there if there are any questions which you feel you can’t answer. That’s exactly what Peter did – he believed I could run the business. Of course, he was made that first call to Sainsbury’s to get the sauce in and I suppose he didn’t need to do anything else! The rest of the work was down to me but that’s what your mentor does, he opens doors and makes connections which you couldn’t do yourself then lets you run with the baton, which is what I’ve certainly done.

Jill: What’s the main focus of your talk today?

Levi: It’s just to get across my story and that same old philosophy that if I can do it, anyone can. I think people need to hear stories like mine to be able to connect with them, and maybe pick up some tips about how I’ve been able to slay my own particular dragons and move on to the next level. If that helps someone, that’d be great.

Jill: There’ll be a lot of start-up businesses here today. Do you have three top tips for these and younger businesses?

Levi: For start-ups, it’s definitely about knowing your customers. It can sometimes take a year or two but it’s key for businesses to be successful. I did exactly that; I took time out to get to know my customers so it’s crucial for young businesses to get out in the field among their customers and know everything about what makes them buy.

Jill: And how about tips for more established businesses?

Levi: Definitely branding. Take care of the brand, invest in the brand, and make sure you have a really great product. People might be buying the brand but they’re investing in the product each time they buy.

Jill: So what are the latest adventures in the life of Levi Roots?

Levi: Well, I’ve made a new album and I’ve opened my first restaurant in Westfield, London, which is a massive move not just for me but for Caribbean food. As a sauce producer, we’re only a small part of the genre but it’s really good to see that people are taking Caribbean food very, very seriously now. I believe my restaurant is a focal point and unique in that it’s authentic Caribbean food from a Caribbean restaurant owner and I hope it’s inspirational for Caribbean people who have seen their food battered left, right and centre by people who are not from that part of the world. So I think there’s somewhere now where folk can recognise there’s great food served by someone they recognise as an authority.

Jill: Is there anything in the pipeline you can give us a peek preview on?

Levi: We’re working on some desserts because I think it’s high time I do something about elusive Caribbean desserts. I wrote a book a while ago about desserts but I have to invent something because Caribbean food has never been about desserts and I have to bridge that gap and bring some good products into what is a huge marketplace.

Jill: Is the original sauce recipe still the same?

Levi: The original sauce is still the same but when you’re upscaling in terms of manufacturing, it’s inevitable that the prototype will never be the same as the original. It’s something you as a business owner have to decide: do you want the original to be authentic and never change but you can’t produce on a large scale, or do you want to change it and watch your business fly and flourish, and then you can make changes as you go along? For me there was only one choice. My kids and I, when we were making the sauce in our kitchen, would kiss every pepper and caress every spice that went into the sauce, but then we were only making 65 bottles and it was very personal. But when I upscaled and made 250,000 bottles, I couldn’t kiss every pepper and caress every spice!

Jill: What else is important to you?

Levi: The work I do with schools is important to me, as well as my School of Life Tour and my prison tours. My work with the Prince’s Trust is really, really important to me; my own cookery programme we’ve been doing for 10 years now with Prince Charles. I work very closely with the Prince; in fact I have two Palace visits next week, one with Prince Charles and the other with his father where I’m working closely with him on the Duke of Edinburgh Awards. It’s really important to me to pass on that message to kids – if Levi can do it, anyone can. When I was young, I could only dream about going to the Palace and getting a Duke of Edinburgh Award and now I’m there every year, giving them out. So it’s just great to get out there and say, yes Levi has been through the quagmire but he’s come out the other side and how great the fulfilment of doing that really is.

Levi Roots still lives in Brixton and used to play with his band at Concorde 2 in Brighton.

Photos taken by Katariina Jarvinen, Light Trick Photography

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