WADE
TRY to imagine a world without braids, weaves, relaxers, wigs or even salons. As difficult as that may seem, it may have been a reality in the United Kingdom were it not for business brains Anthony Wade, M.B.E., and his partners, Len Dyke and Dudley Dryden.
On the back of the waves of West Indian immigrants coming to Britain, Dyke and Dryden had set up a business importing records from Jamaica. It was a great idea if not slightly flawed by their lack of musical knowledge, says Wade.
"They were in the business of selling records but neither of them understood it. They weren't buying the right records and they were losing money. My suggestion was that there was a huge need out there for cosmetics and hair preparations for black women. It was hard because they were known for selling records; the sound system people were a little disappointed but the sisters were very happy."
HAIR CARE
After agreeing that distributing (and later manufacturing) hair care products for black women was the way, Wade joined his friends in business and never looked back. Clever thinking, global aspirations and the launch of company subsidiaries like Afro Hair and Beauty Ltd. (the first show was in May 1982) ensured them a place in the history books. Dyke and Dryden became the first black-owned company in Britain to have a multimillion-pound success story on their hands.
Today the fruits of Anthony Wade's labour are immediately obvious: After a walk and possibly
a swim, he contemplates an afternoon of writing his memoirs in the comfort of his part-time home in Jamaica.
However, this is not an article in Vogue magazine. Wade's lifestyle is not the result of hereditary luck but sheer hard graft, thwarted consistently in the early days by people's refusal to accept them or take them seriously.
In the early days, racial discrimination was rife. "The white establishment didn't want to carry our products so I hired white sales people, which was something my black brothers and sisters couldn't understand," explains Wade. "I couldn't get money out of the bank because there was no track record [for black businesses] - they had no confidence in us. But we were able to prove ourselves; even in the early days we had a turnover of £260,000, which was a lot of money."
Last year, Wade was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Black Enterprise Awards. It is welcome recognition which sits nicely alongside other accolades throughout his career, notably the time when he and a select few other companies were invited to No. 10 Downing Street by Margaret Thatcher.
His proud moments, he says, are too numerous to mention but a commu-nity-organised reception for Dyke and Dryden in 2001 stands out, as does the fact that his company has created a legacy which now contributes to a growing entrepreneurial spirit within the black community. "We created an industry which now provides thousands and thousands of jobs. Now 29 per cent of black businesses are owned by women and our spending power is £10 billion - now that's economic power."
WILL TO SUCCEED
Goal-wise, Wade has nothing more to prove but he will continue to achieve purely because he can't help himself. With the recent launch of the Black Enterprise Awards in Jamaica and his third book to write, Wade will continue to help, contribute and advise wherever he can.
For budding entrepreneurs out there, Wade has very firm advice: "What young people today have to bear in mind is that nothing is easy and the world doesn't owe them a living," he says. "You have to have the will to succeed and you've got to have ambition."
