Out The Box

Supporting black brands

Sainsbury’s is aiming to help more black entrepreneurs enter the retail sector with a new incubator programme.

Black-led businesses in the food and drink industry are set to receive Sainsbury’s backing with the retailer’s new incubator programme.

WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA?

BAME businesses and entrepreneurs have long struggled for breakthroughs, facing various barriers, including inadequate funding, lack of social capital and networks, or limited industry knowledge and expertise.

Now, Sainsbury’s has designed an initiative designed specifically to help address these obstacles, offering a bespoke programme of support for black founders of food and beverage businesses, in partnership with Foundervine and Mission Ventures.

HOW WILL IT WORK?

The initiative, called Thrive with Sainsbury’s, will offer a welcome grant of £20,000 to nine successful applicants, as well as more than 150 hours of practical 1:1 support and group learning opportunities with a variety of subject matter experts during the process.

Up to five new brands will land in Sainsbury’s stores by the end of the programme, with each participant’s journey to be tailored to their specific needs.

There will also be additional funding available at various stages throughout the process, up to the value of £105,000 per brand that makes its way to a listing at Sainsbury’s.

The scheme is open to any food and drink business founded by a person who identifies as being of Black ethnicity or heritage. They must have an exciting new product, an ambition to grow and scale-up to supermarket level distribution and a vision for what the future of their brand could be.

Applications for the programme will close on 16 August and hopeful participants can apply online.

Shellie-Manso added: “It’s a new approach for us and our hope is that it will drive both meaningful change within the retail sector, while also enabling us to bring more innovation and a broader range of product to our customers. I would encourage anyone who relates to this to apply and am looking forward to seeing what pioneering products are out there.”

WHY DOES IT MATTER?

Representation and inclusivity are huge issues for every business sector, as demonstrated in the past few years.

“We know that despite the strength of ideas and potential amongst Black founders, often opportunities and success can be hindered by ethnicity, which is we are starting with this group of the most underrepresented founders first,” Shellie-Manso said.

“As one of the most important industries in the UK, representation in the grocery sector has the potential to create immense social change.

“Thrive by Sainsburys opens up the possibility for black-led brands to become household staples across the country, to ignite conversations about supplier and supply chain diversity,” Cecil Adjalo, Chief Operating Officer at Foundervine, added.

ARE ANY OTHER RETAILERS FOLLOWING SUIT?

Other than inclusivity, penetrating the busy food and drinks sector for any small brand and win listings at big supermarkets is always a challenge.

Tesco similarly launched an incubator programme in 2017, supporting the development and scale-up of six emerging brands. Last spring it welcomed Oggs, Pip & Nut, Kendamil, Denzel’s, OceanSaver and Acti-Vit.