Leaders and entrepreneurs from across Bristol gathered at the Bristol Post’s offices to discuss the challenges facing the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) business community in the city - and what can be done to address those issues now and in the future.
The roundtable event was sponsored by Natwest, which is working to support more BAME entrepreneurs in Bristol , and was chaired by Hannah Baker, business editor of and the Bristol Post. Guests included:
Kalpna Woolf: chief executive of Be On Board and founder of 91 Ways to Build A Global City
Cllr Asher Craig: deputy mayor and cabinet member for communities, equalities and public health at Bristol City Council
Roger Griffith: associate lecturer and community engagement/partnerships worker at UWE and chair of Ujima Radio CIC
Romy Gill MBE: chef and cookery teacher, and owner of Romy’s Kitchen Restaurant
Anthony Kwan: director of Kwan & Company chartered accountants
Rashid Majothi: co-owner of Bristol Sweet Mart
Abdul Majothi: co-owner of Bristol Sweet Mart
Sandeep Roy: scale-up specialist and business model innovation advisor for SMEs and digital/tech companies. Guest lecturer at Oxford Brookes.
Marti Burgess: head of corporate SME at Gregg Latcham Solicitors
Iain Glover: NatWest regional head of business development for Wales and the South West
John Bendall: NatWest senior director of business banking for Bristol and Avon
Carmen Tilbury: non-executive director of Babassa and business analyst at NatWest
Anna Shinner: relationship manager at Natwest
Asher : The Bristol Black Business Association was set up in the 1980s so this is like a dejavu moment. We are in exactly the same position as we were then.
There is a lot of work going on in this space, but I want us to work together and not in isolation. We have known what the barriers are for a long time. Understanding and acting on those is critical.
Roger : I grew up in one of the toughest areas of Bristol in the 1980s. The thought we would be talking in the same context 30 years later is shocking but we are still here.
Sandeep : The US has had this problem for a long time. One big bank has agreed to give a certain percentage of its funding to BAME companies.
It is not channelling the anti-privilege, it’s giving people an opportunity - and it’s a simple action that could be done by most big companies in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ.
'Talking in the same context 30 years later is shocking'
Kalpa : The problem is there are people who don’t know what is available. There are lots of fantastic courses on how to write tenders and business planning offered by Natwest.
Organisations are spending a lot of money on these things, and they are great, but how many have BAME entrepreneurs on?
Marti : Banks need to do more so people know what is available. It is more likely that if you are a privileged person you will know where to go.
Iain : Awareness is key. A lot of people in the BAME community may not know what we offer.
Asher : If you keep doing the same thing you are going to keep getting the same results. You have to turn things on its head. It is not always about us coming to you - it’s about you bringing that to us.
Abdul : If you do go to a bank, often they make it so difficult. In most places, what you need is only available online which means people in the branches are only sign posting.
Romy : There is so much happening in London. There is such a lot of wealth in the South West and so more needs to be done here.
Asher : I want to find a way of uniting communities and getting their voices heard. I have been working on that at a grassroots level and it’s very interesting.
The issue is when people look up and see the powers that be don’t look like them. I set up Be on Board which is about changing where the power and influence sits at government and leadership level. We are doing that by training people in skills. Natwest has been fantastic with Be on Board.
Sandeep : I think Natwest is doing a really good job of upgrading to a digitally-focused bank. In the º£½ÇÊÓƵ, five big banks have a monopoly; in no other developed economy do banks have a share of 80 per cent. There are at least 10 banks in every country.
Iain : We are trying to innovate. And we are looking for people to trial our digital-only account, Mettle. We are talking to businesses all the time to find out how we can compete with competitor banks.
In Bristol, we have an entrepreneurs hub and I would like to reach out to the community beyond people who know about the hub. The male-female split is superb and is 53 per cent female, but I think we need to encourage more BAME people to get involved.
Roger : I am quite well networked and I didn’t know about the accelerator programme.
Marti : It’s the knowledge share. I was buying a restaurant and we got turned down, but I got told afterwards that if I was applying for 65 per cent not 70 per cent we would have got it. But why didn’t that knowledge get shared with me?
Iain : We need to get out into the BAME community and make people aware that we will lend x, y and z. We need to inform people what our criteria is.
'We have to let the BAME community know about what is going on'
Anthony : We should stop criticising banks. Every company has their own policies, their targets, their customer base. I prefer quality clients than quantity. For example, a lot of my Chinese clients want to borrow money.
Some of them went to another big bank and it wouldn’t entertain them. But it’s not discrimination - that bank will not entertain catering businesses. It’s about awareness. We have to let the BAME community know about what is going on. I haven’t experienced any discrimination so far.
Carmen : Companies need to think more about product creation. If the product is being created by a white male then it will be targeted at that audience. Are businesses making offerings that match everyone they want to serve?
Asher : You need diversity of thought within the teams you have otherwise you get the same old, same old. We want to make sure a certain percentage of our contracts at the council are given awarded to Bristol businesses and then even more locally.
There is so much talent across all of our organisations. It will increase the diversity pool and those businesses will speak out.
Abdul : It’s a knock-on effect. We used to supply an Italian gentleman in Southmead and he supported us by buying the goods from us. Going local is excellent.
Sandeep : We also need to think about what we can do as a community. People who have been successful have had mentors.
Can we volunteer to become buddies to other people? For example, you say you will be a buddy or mentor to a start-up business and help them meet others. People believe peers and I think that will be a big help.
Abdul : It is about sharing your experience.
Kalpna : Mentoring is really important. I was really impressed by the Natwest scheme.
Roger : Overall, this is not an easy issue. You have to be in it for the long term. There are some good ideas which come from the past, such as the Black Business Directory, and putting money into that. But I would ask for some of that long-term planning to be put in place here in Bristol.
Iain : I think an immediate step that we can agree to take as a bank that importantly will have a positive impact is looking at launching a version of our entrepreneur pre-accelerator programme specifically for BAME communities in Avon.
This would give BAME entrepreneurs and start-ups a really exciting and beneficial resource to help them lift their businesses off the ground and achieve success. We did something similar in London, which was a huge success.
