Economic negative impact is primarily because the
industry is set up as individual small businesses,
sme’s and is labor-intensive and it’s recovery is slow.

The British curry industry in the UK has been hailed
as one of the UK’s greatest migratory successes and
is singularly credited to the contribution to the
creation of wealth and employment predominantly
within the South Asian, Indian and Bangladeshi
migrants to the UK.
There is nowhere in the world that has seen the likes
of success as British curry and it has become a trade
mark for culinary excellence renowned and revered all
over the globe.
The BCA was set up to represent, advise and protect
the interests of the Bangladeshi restauranteurs in the
UK. From 1960 to today it remains the largest and
oldest umbrella association of its kind in Europe and
beyond.
BCA highlighted the immense tax contribution of the
12,000 restaurants and take away businesses to the
British Economy, a whopping 4.2 billion pounds. No
small feat in terms of success. Pre pandemic people
turned to The BCA to help to highlight concerns when
a change in immigration tier 3 rules impacted on our
industry.
We met with ministers and campaigned for support
and aid for the sustainability of our industry. We
worked hard around issues of concern for staff
shortage and staff retention. The BCA fought against
the impact of 1 in 7 restaurant closures.
We started then to see major changes were needed
but we could not have foreseen what was to come.
We were set to address the extra demands by setting
up training centres and continuing our lobby of
parliament for a change in rules.
However, with the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020,
when the industry had reached maximum values. A
global economic crisis emerged.
At the start of the pandemic we could not have
envisaged how much our daily life would be impacted
or how our private lives would change. Our routines,
from our working practices to the way we shop, eat
and interact with others. More people worked from
home .Our methods of shopping and interaction
moved to on line, even our children’s education and
exercise was delivered through on line services.
Recent research has shown our industry was severely
damaged but it also shows that the restaurant
industry is one of the industries that contributes the
most to the development of tourism both in terms of
revenue and employment.
Economic negative impact is primarily because the
industry is set up as individual small businesses, sme’s
and is labor-intensive and it’s recovery is slow.
Today post pandemic I see a new area of threat with
changes that has added to sustainability of the
industry as a whole. Rising costs of inflation and the

energy crisis impacting on the economic growth of the
industry and upon its sustainability.
BCA must now look at its working practices based on
the needs and the demands of our customers and be
ready to change with the times in order to save and
sustain our industry. BCA needs to be in a position to
not only be at the forefront of change but to lead on
this whole system of change.
As we face a looming recession and some say we are
already in a recession, BCA must be ready to advise the
tailoring and streamlining of our working practices and
embrace the new technology and on line services.
For existing businesses and those entrepreneurs that at
looking to invest in opening up a restaurant or takeaway
we must look at carrying out a major overhaul.
We must revisit how we employ kitchen staff and
managers and look at the budgets to get more effective
chefs and management to run our businesses efficiently.
To survive and flourish and to combat the recent mini
budget effects of the financial and cost of living crisis
BCA must conduct some serious research to see what
quantitive and market research shows in terms of what
works and what doesn’t. I believe that this is vital so that
we can advise accordingly and move forward together
to succeed and flourish.
This is my call to all our members and our industry to
keep up in these ever changing and unpredictable
times of economic recovery and growth, look deeper
into areas such as environmental impact and to
modernise the way we work so as to keep up with the
challenges and changes and ensure we are on track to
deliver on a sustainable path.
BCA remains at the forefront of campaigning and
highlighting best practice to its members and will
always be there to campaign and provide the best in
advice and direction. I hope that you too will stay with
us, support our endeavours as we remain ever steadfast
to support our industry through times of change.