Hackney Condiment Maker Exports to Europe, Hits Six Figures

Three years ago, Amara Osei-Bonsu was selling fermented hot sauces from a fold-up table at Ridley Road Market. This week, she signed her third wholesale contract with a distributor in the Netherlands, bringing her annual turnover to just under £180,000, a figure she expects to clear by September.

The timing matters. European markets are volatile right now. France recorded more than 2,000 excess deaths at the peak of a severe heatwave last month, disrupting food supply chains across the continent. Russian fuel shortages are pushing up logistics costs. For smaller UK exporters, the margin for error is thin. Osei-Bonsu says that is precisely why she moved fast to lock in contracts before the summer freight surcharges kicked in.

Pepper & Thread operates out of a railway arch unit on Mentmore Terrace in London Fields, a strip that has quietly become one of Hackney's more productive small-manufacturing corridors. The business employs four people full-time and two part-time production assistants, all recruited locally. Osei-Bonsu credits the Hackney Business Network, a council-supported programme that connects early-stage entrepreneurs with mentors and procurement contacts, with helping her navigate the paperwork required to export food products to the EU post-Brexit.

The Numbers Behind the Shelves

Her flagship product, a scotch bonnet and tamarind sauce retailing at £6.50 for a 200ml bottle, now sits in 34 independent grocery and deli outlets across east London, including Broadway Market and two stores on Stoke Newington Church Street. A restaurant-grade bulk version, sold in 2.5-litre containers at £38, is the product driving the wholesale push abroad.

The Federation of Small Businesses reported in May 2026 that UK food and drink exports to the EU recovered to 94 percent of pre-Brexit levels for the first time, with fermented and specialty condiments among the fastest-growing subcategories. Osei-Bonsu is riding that wave, but she has also done the structural work, achieving SALSA accreditation in March 2025, which is the food safety standard most major European distributors require before they will place an order.

Getting there cost roughly £12,000 in consultancy fees, equipment upgrades and auditing. She funded it through a £9,000 grant from the Mayor of London's Good Growth Fund, matched by her own savings. Without that, she says, the accreditation would have been another two years away.

What Other Hackney Makers Can Learn

The arch on Mentmore Terrace costs her £1,450 a month, cheap by central London standards but steep for a business her size. She negotiated a two-year fixed lease in January 2025, locking out the rent hikes that have pushed several other food makers out of the area entirely. The lesson, she argues, is that operational decisions have to run ahead of growth decisions. Secure the space before you land the contract, not after.

Hackney Council's Economic Development team confirmed in its 2025-26 annual report that the borough now has 47 occupied railway arch units classified as light manufacturing, up from 31 in 2022. The council is currently in consultation with Network Rail over lease terms for a further 12 arches between Haggerston and Dalston Junction that could open to small businesses by early 2027.

For entrepreneurs in Hackney watching Osei-Bonsu's trajectory, the practical pathway is clearer than it might appear. The Hackney Business Network runs free monthly drop-in sessions at Hackney House on Reading Lane, and the next one focused specifically on food export is scheduled for 22 July. The Good Growth Fund has a rolling application window, and the next assessment panel meets in September. Osei-Bonsu sat on that panel as a peer reviewer last autumn, a sign of how quickly the ecosystem here can pull someone from applicant to adviser.

Her Rotterdam distributor wants the first shipment by 1 September. She is already scouting a second arch unit to handle the additional production volume. The market stall on Ridley Road is still running on Saturdays. She has no plans to give it up.

This article is general information only and is not personal financial or investment advice. Consider your own circumstances and seek licensed professional advice before making financial decisions.