Success on a Plate: Housewife Fazilas creates Recipe for Success
IT started with one woman cooking home-made Asian food from a shop in Daubhill.
Now Fazila Foods employs 27 people and produces frozen Halal cuisine for sale across the country.
And the firm is celebrating success at the inaugural Asian Business Federation Tiger Awards, where it scooped the workforce, skills and development award.
Realising there was a gap in the market for good-quality Asian food, Fazila and Abdul Malek set up K and F Frozen Foods in Derby Street, Daubhill, in September, 1999.
Mrs Malek, aged 40, said: "People were asking for home-cooked products so I started making small samples from home."
The enterprise proved so successful that they began mass-producing their food.
In 2002, they moved to their current base in Darbishire Street.
It sells samosas, pasties and spring rolls under its own brand name to retailers and takeaways.
The firm also supplies restaurants and makes products for other companies.
This month, the couple went into partnership with Mr Malek's two brothers and their wives, and renamed the company Fazila Foods.
Next year it will expand further, moving from its 1,500 sq ft premises to a new 6,000 sq ft site at The Valley, and the Maleks are planning to employ at least another 12 members of staff within the next two years.
Mrs Malek said her business venture has been so successful because the products are hand-made and traditionally cooked, using only fresh and authentic ingredients.
"I have also had tremendous support from my family and organisations like Business Bolton and Business Link in Manchester," she said.
Mrs Malek added she was delighted to win the award, which recognises the firm's low staff turnover and progress of its team leaders.
"It is really an award for our staff who work so hard and really deserve this recognition."
Source: The Bolton News (Tuesday 27 November 2007)
