FEATURE15 October 2018

Market performer

x Sponsored content on Research Live and in Impact magazine is editorially independent.
Find out more about advertising and sponsorship.

FMCG Features Impact Leisure & Arts People UK

Thanks to a successful turn on Dragons’ Den, Levi Roots expanded his Reggae Reggae Sauce into the mainstream. Jane Simms talks to him about brand extensions, adapting to conventional tastes and staying true to his core consumers

Levi1

Levi Roots is quite tricky to interview. He’s engaging, interesting, amusing – and even the reggae music thumping out in his Caribbean ‘rasta’raunt’ in London’s Westfield shopping centre isn’t a problem. But our conversation is constantly interrupted by diners saying hello, praising the food or the atmosphere, shaking his hand, and asking for selfies. He obliges each time, scarcely missing a beat – because, despite the runaway success of his Reggae Reggae Sauce, Roots is, above all, a performer. 

He spent 30 years in the music business, touring the world with stars such as James Brown and Black Uhuru, and was nominated for a MOBO award in 1998, for his Free Your Mind album. He also used to play Sunday football with Bob Marley in Battersea Park – and one of the defining moments of his life was ...