Inside the Birmingham family business set up in heart of Newtown that now stocks ASDA and Sainsbury's

It all began in the summer 1989 in the heart of Newtown with just five staff members working on a special recipe from a unit on Alma Street. It was 'hard-going' and mistakes were made to get the taste 'just right', but there in one of the city's most deprived areas, Island Delight's Jamaican patty was born.

And decades later, the very same pastry recipe is still used today for the jerk chicken, curried lamb and chilli beef patties sold in major supermarkets across the UK. Now, the operation runs from a warehouse in Hockley, with a whopping 12million patties a year shipped out to the likes of Sainsbury's, ASDA, Morrisons, Iceland and Co-op.

Cleone Foods, the umbrella company for the patties, was the brainchild of Smethwick dad Dr Wade Lyn - who was this month branded a "formidable figure" of Birmingham and awarded a honorary doctorate by Birmingham City University. Now 65-years-old, the dad-of-one plans to hand the successful business down to his daughter who will he says will take the reins once she's ready.

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Recalling how it started, the Jamaican-born businessman told BirminghamLive: "I'd worked in the industry, so I understood what we had to do. Over the summer of '89, I was developing the product in terms of getting the taste right, understanding how the cookers work, everything else like that to do with the pastries. I developed the vegetable patty that's still used today.

"It was hard-going at the beginning but it's a learning exercise, so the more mistakes I made, the better I'd get it next time. In Jamaica there was a restaurant across the road, so I used the basics of her recipe and tweaked it for the UK palate.

"The dream was to get it into mainstream. My first was ASDA locally in Small Heath and One Stop. We branched out to Queslett, then we branched out to Manchester and gradually increased the business. I think it's great where we've got to."

READ MORE: In pictures: Inside the Hockley factory that ships out Jamaican patties to major supermarkets

The patties are now mainstream, with British opting for a 'bit of spice', but back in the early 60s, such foods were rarely heard of. He added: "For me it's really to highlight that we've arrived in the UK back in the early 60s, but our food is mainstream now. A lot of British people and Asian will go for a Caribbean meal because they like a little bit of spice, it puts a little bit of spice up your life.

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"At some stage when my daughter is ready, it will be handed down to her and other family members. I think the critical thing is, I've done my time, once she's ready she can come in and run the company." Asked the secret to his success, humble Dr Lyn puts it down to his staff.

"I've got to say without the staff onboard, we wouldn't have got this far. Although I'm the head of the company, without my staff behind me doing the quality control, the production, we wouldn't be where we are today," he added.

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