An annual exhibition, known as the largest shopping experience for cultural items and Black businesses, is set to be held in Manchester this weekend.

The event will showcase over 100 Black-owned brands on Saturday, August 6, at The Lighthouse Venue.

It was established by Monique Kufuor, the founder of BOBExpo, in 2018 as a frustrated mum unable to find diverse products for her children.

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Through conversation with others and researching the market, she found that this was a shared experience for the Black consumer, and decided to create this platform that elevates Black businesses throughout Britain.

Today, this is known as the largest shopping experience in the 海角视频 for Afro-Caribbean products and services, ranging from beauty, food and fashion.

The event will be back for its fourth year in Manchester from 10am to 7pm. Last year, the exhibition saw over 2,000 attendees, with over 100 brands and businesses exhibiting.

Speaking to the recently, Monique Kufuor said: "The expo is your one-stop shop for all your cultural and diverse products. The aim is to increase the visibility of Black-owned brands - you would usually walk into a business expo and not see many, but there are lots.

"The reason I set it up was that I struggled to find afro-specific products for my hair, and this was a shared problem within the Black community- that diverse products are not easily accessible."

Monique, who lives in Stockport, was previously a mental health nurse. It was while she was on maternity leave a few years ago that she really began to think seriously about creating a platform where people could discover local and national Black businesses, providing products and services for a more diverse audience. "I already had this natural passion for discovering these brands and other people would always come to me and ask where I can get this for more hair or similar.

鈥淚 originally started the platform online so people could discover these brands and then I realised just how many there are, and that鈥檚 where physical events came into it.鈥

Monique, who recently made the Future List at the Northern Power Women Awards believes that 鈥渆veryone should have access to products they need and feel represented in鈥, and thinks the reason large retailers don鈥檛 cater for Multi-Ethnic consumers is because they鈥檙e not involved in the decision making process.

鈥淚 would say that retailers have often overlooked the Black consumer. If you look at an aisle selling hair products, you can find that there鈥檚 not one product aimed at you - but there鈥檚 obviously a market for it. The products are there, it鈥檚 not that they need to be created, it鈥檚 just about retailers being more conscious and then everyone can have an equal shopping experience.

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