F&D Heroes Issue 1

Food & Drink Hero:
The Black Farmer
Born in Jamaica, Wilfred’s family came to the UK in the Windrush years in the
1950s. Brought up in inner-city Birmingham, he fulfilled his childhood dream to
own a small piece of the British countryside. Inspired by this and his love and
support of British farming, he launched The Black Farmer brand.
Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones is, in his own
words, ‘a poor boy, done good’. He was born
in Jamaica and then, after his parents came
to the UK in the 50s, was raised in inner-city
Birmingham.
For a number of years Wilfred worked as a
chef before pursuing a career in television.
Unqualified and dyslexic but ambitious and
persistent, he talked his way into working
in television, rising to become a producer/
director for the BBC. He is credited with
bringing many of the top UK celebrity
chefs to the small screen including Gordon
Ramsay, Antony Worrall-Thompson, Brian
Turner and James Martin.
In 1994, he founded a food and drink
marketing agency in London which went
on to run successful campaigns for Loyd
Grossman sauces, KETTLE Chips, Plymouth
Gin, Cobra Beer and other challenger brands.
Wilfred subsequently fulfilled a lifelong
ambition and bought a small farm in Devon
in 2000. This inspired him to develop and
launch his own food brand the now very
successful The Black Farmer brand of
gluten-free foods.
The Black Farmer has products in all the
major supermarkets and is best known for
the brand’s award-winning sausages. This
year Wilfred’s great triumph has been to get
all of the UK supermarkets to get behind
Black History Month in October.
They all agreed to sell special edition The
Black Farmer sausages, featuring Mary
Seacole and Sergeant Lincoln Orville Lynch
DFM. Donations from the sale of these
products will be going to The Mary Seacole
Trust and The Black Cultural Archives.
Having established the brand in the UK,
Wilfred is launching this month The Black
Farmer Farmshop online. Always keen to be
a pathfinder, it’s the first black-owned
major, national farmshop, selling up to
150 product lines.
When the The Black Farmer brand
was started, it was created to be an
international brand and this year Wilfred
is looking to export The Black Farmer
products to Dubai, Canada and the US.
In 2013, Wilfred nearly lost his life to
Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. He spent a
year in hospital and in 2014 underwent
a stem cell transplant. Since that time,
he has suffered with Graft versus Host
disease. However, his experience has
given him an even greater appetite for
life and supporting others.
He has published two books, the first
The Black Farmer Cookbook – a journey
through his life in recipes; and most
recently (2018) the much acclaimed
“Jeopardy – The Danger of Playing it
Safe” – an inspirational read for those
starting or running their own businesses.
In 2018, Wilfred set up The Hatchery, an
incubator scheme for fledgling brands.
The first brand to ‘hatch’ and hit the
market has been Smorgasbord Swedish
Meatballs, a resounding success and
already achieving national listings in
Sainsbury’s, Asda and Costco, and the
second, The Gym Kitchen, launched in
January 2020 in Asda stores.
Wilfred was awarded an MBE for
services to farming in the 2020 New
Year’s Honours List.
theblackfarmer.com
@theblackfarmer
@theblackfarmer
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