Having grown up in poverty in the 1960s, Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones would go on to build a successful career in television, and later marketing. But he never forgot his childhood ambition to own his own farm

The story of Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones MBE, better known as the Black Farmer, is an uplifting one; a tale of one man's triumph over adversity, and an inspirational lesson about pursuing a dream.

Emmanuel-Jones was born in Clarendon, Jamaica, in 1957 and moved over to the UK at the age of four, joining his parents who had gone earlier as part of the Windrush generation. "I was coming to a foreign country and had to adjust to these two people who presented themselves as my parents, when I had been living with other people for four years," he says. "At the grand old age of 65, it's only now that I can see that must have been quite a traumatic experience."

As with many immigrants, the reality of life in the UK was bleak back in the 1960s. "We were really, really poor," he recalls. "I remember my mother trying to feed all 11 of us with one chicken, and it wasn't the sort of chicken you get now."

His respite from this came in the form of an allotment which his father was given. "It became my oasis away from the misery in which I was living," he says. "I remember, at the age of 11, I made myself a promise that one day, I'd like to buy my own farm because I enjoyed being in this environment of tranquillity and peace. I decided I would make this my life's work."

It would not be an easy journey. He struggled academically, hindered by undiagnosed dyslexia; something he now regards as a gift which has helped him in his entrepreneurial career. "Being dyslexic is a vital tool, because it means you've got to think outside of the box," he says. "One of the things about an education system is that you have to operate by certain rules. And in a sense that can restrain people from being imaginative and dreaming big, to be audacious, to be bold.

"That dyslexia and upbringing was my training. From a very young age, I had to learn how to survive, how to adapt and read different situations, which were vital ingredients for being entrepreneurial. One of the things I always find fascinating is why a lot of people who leave corporate life and set up businesses fail. The reason is because they take the structures that you need for corporate entities into a start-up, and they don't have the instinct or the street-fighting edge that you need when you're in start-up mode."

Breaking the rules

Emmanuel-Jones headed off to the army at the age of 16, determined to escape the confines of the family home. As a rule-breaker, he didn't fit in. "After about a year, I got chucked out so the only qualification that I have to my name is a dishonourable discharge," he says. "But, again, I had vital tools for being an entrepreneur, because I was always questioning and challenging things. They don't have that in the army; you're there to do as you're told."

He moved into catering and spent several years "flipping burgers". But he set his mind on working in television, even heading off to the BBC's Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham. "I wrote to everybody," he says. "And, obviously, nobody would write back to me, so I rang everybody and nobody would answer my calls. So I went to the studios and asked the security guards whether I could help them opening the barriers, letting people in and out of the building."

They agreed, and after a few months he met someone who agreed to give him a job as a runner for three months. "He had the courage to give me that break, and then started off a long career in television," he says. "I went from being a researcher to a producer and director, and I travelled the world making films about food and drink. I gave a lot of the celebrity chefs including Gordon Ramsey and James Martin their first break, directing them how to perform in front of camera. I went from having no qualification to quite a remarkable job in TV."

But still the desire to run his own farm burned, and he was well aware that he was unlikely to be able to achieve this on the money he was on in television. "You would think that, coming from my background managing to get a job at the BBC, the thing to do would be to keep my head down, and thank my lucky stars," he says.

"But the moment you do that you go into survival mode and life passes you by. That is why you need to have a dream to keep you true to what you want to achieve. This dream to buy my farm was always a nagging reminder not to settle." It was a theme he would later return to in his book, Jeopardy - The Danger of Playing it Safe. He left the BBC to set up a food-and-drink marketing business, which he then ran for 15 years, before finally achieving his goal.

Pastures new

Having holidayed in Devon and Cornwall, he bought a plot of land on the border between the two counties. His intention was never to make his own products, but to use other suppliers, which he hoped would bridge the gap between rural and urban Britain. "I saw this massive gulf," he says. "It was as if you're going to two different worlds, and they are very suspicious of each other. I saw an opportunity to create a brand that would bridge that."

The initial question was what to produce. "Because I'm black, most people would have thought it's got to be something ethnic," he says. "But I wanted it to be a mainstream product. I thought I would do a sausage. I phoned the manufacturers up and they helped me to develop the product. We were the first people to launch a mainstream, gluten-free sausage that could be eaten by anyone, not just people with a wheat intolerance."

Then there was the issue of what to call the business. "All of my next-door neighbours used to call me the black farmer," he says. "And I just thought, actually, that's a pretty good brand name. It has an edge to it because people are not too sure what the correct language to use is when you're referring to people of colour. A lot of black businesses feel that they have to hide their colour, in order to be taken seriously but I wanted to make a statement that this is a black guy owning a black business in the mainstream."

He conducted initial research into the idea, which wasn't positive, and decided to ignore it. "That was a really important lesson," he says. "Data will tell you what people were thinking yesterday and what people are thinking today. But it cannot tell you what people will think tomorrow. That's where innovation comes from."

The product itself was well received, and today is stocked in all major supermarkets. More recently, it has expanded into online sales, something that helped the business during the Covid lockdowns. It's also enabled him to increase the range; the company now sells a wide range of food, including hampers, cheeses, and fruit and vegetables, as well as beers, ciders and wines, and even his own Don Wilfred Rum, which he has developed to reflect his love of Spain.

"We're now finding that people can see the power of the brand and they want to be associated with it," he says. "The online business is really pushing the Black Farmer as a lifestyle brand, and that's at the forefront of what I'm going to be doing in the next couple of years."

Alongside this, he also plans to open a venue where people can visit called the Black Farmer Experience, which he hopes will have a farm shop, restaurant and even a wedding venue. "I want people from different backgrounds to be able to come and feel comfortable and that they belong," he says. "There will be this bridge between urban and rural." Exporting is also on the agenda, as he feels the Black Farmer concept could also work well in markets such as Canada and the US.

He's also set up other businesses, including Pause; a candle and fragrance firm he set up in lockdown, having himself overcome a battle with Leukaemia. "For a whole year I was in hospital," he says. "It gave me an opportunity to reflect and to focus on what's important. And two things came after that experience: I wanted to do the Pause brand and I wanted to do something about my passion for flamenco, so I bought a place in Jerez. I'm also launching a brand called I Am Halal, because there are a lot of Muslims in this country who want premium food, and all the bigger players are a bit frightened of it. We're just in the process of launching that now."

Hatching a new generation

Alongside all this, he's also helping to create a new generation of businesses from in and around the food-and-drink sector. "I love to give opportunities," he says. "If anybody has a good idea and I like them, they can then become members of the hatchery.

"The idea is that most people can't really pay themselves when they're starting up, so rather than employ someone to work for the Black Farmer business that person could then be employed working on the Black Farmer business and develop their brand at the same time." Already there have been notable successes, including the health food brand Gym Kitchen and Swedish meatball manufacturer Smorgasbord. Emmanuel-Jones takes a stake in the firm, and the business benefits from his contacts and experience, he adds.

His message to anyone starting up a business is to make sure they get the marketing right, and never forget the value of customer service. "People focus so much on the product but they do not think of the importance of communicating with the customer," he warns. "If you don't know how to communicate with the customer, it doesn't matter how fantastic your product is, you will fail. That's why we are a white-label proposition. We don't want to get caught up in manufacturing and doing the distribution, otherwise you get a conflict of interest about where to spend the money. I always say to my staff that you've got to treat your customers like you would a loved one. I'm appalled about how badly customers are treated."

He's also keen to help people believe that they can do whatever they set their minds to. "I would say to have faith that it will all come good, if you're prepared to keep at it," he says. "It is still really difficult to get funding unless you are from a particular background and that needs to change." He'd like to see a dedicated "entrepreneur bank", designed to help people get up and running in business.

Political ambitions

An unsuccessful Conservative candidate for Chippenham - where the Black Farmer has a fulfilment centre - back in 2010, Emmanuel-Jones still feels he can make a difference in some of the big issues facing the country. "I'm keen to get into the establishment and to try and bring about change," he says.

He recently became a governor of the Royal Agricultural University; a prestigious institution which has struggled with just attracting students from a particular background. "It's no good just waiting for people to come to come to us," he says. "We've got to reach out to people, and the farming community in order to bring more diversity." Emmanuel-Jones himself is still one of only a handful of black farmers in the UK.

Another cause he's pushing is the quality of food in the food service sector, encompassing restaurants or canteens. "Before Covid, most of the food that people consume directly was eaten outside of the home," he says. "But there is far less scrutiny on food service than there is in retail. For example, most of the eggs that you would get from supermarkets will now be free range but in food service sector they're probably from battery hens. Because it hasn't really been brought to their attention about what goes on in food service, there is an opportunity to educate the consumer and to bring about change."

Outside of business, Emmanuel-Jones is a keen supporter of Morris dancing, as well as flamenco, and sponsors a Morris dancing troupe in Dublin. "The thing I love is eccentricity," he says. "What is it that makes grown men and women dress up in funny costumes to go and have a dance? I admire people who do that and don't really care about what people might think. These are the things that we need to really treasure because that is what separates us from machines."

As for his own journey, he admits it's an extraordinary tale. "As I get to be 65 this year and I look back, even I am in awe of it," he says. "My efforts have been part of it but it's also down to those people who I've met along the way and who have helped me. It makes you think, is there a greater purpose to have enabled me to achieve the things that I have? Even with the leukaemia, I know that I'm only here because of good science. It makes you realise you have got to make use of this time that you have, and therefore it makes you fearless. You're not bothered by things that a lot of people are bothered by. I'm so fortunate to be here, so whatever I'm here to do I want to do with gusto."

Timeline

An unlikely journey: How Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones went from Windrush to Black Farmer

1957: Born in Clarendon, Jamaica. He would move to the UK at the age of four

1973: Left school at 16 and heads into the army, where he would only last a year. He then moved into catering and later into television

1997: Finally achieved his lifelong dream, creating the Black Farmer brand

2010: Stood as a Conservative candidate in the General Election. His failed bid was captured in a TV programme called Cameron's Black Tory

2012: Awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Marketing by Plymouth University

2014: Diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia, and was given just a 20% chance of survival. A stem cell transplant saved his life

2018: Published Jeopardy - The Danger of Playing it Saf

2019: Set up The Hatchery, as an incubator for new food-and-drink businesses

2020: Awarded the MBE for services to British farming

Launched the Black Farmer website, which would help the business through the Covid pandemic and help expand its product line

2021: Awarded an Honorary Degree for Distinction in the Farming Industry from Writtle Agricultural College in Essex

2022: Became a governor of the Royal Agricultural University