EARLY CHILDHOOD was carefree for Tony Deep when he was growing up in British India. His father was a draughtsman at the Ministry of Defence in Delhi and the family was comfortably well off. In August 1947, however, everything changed.

Deep, then aged five, and his brother were staying with their grandparents when India won its freedom from colonial rule. But independence came at a price. With communal tension running high between Hindus and Muslims, the country had been partitioned to create Pakistan, the area where Deep’s grandparents had their home. Sensing trouble, his grandmother fled to Delhi with the two boys but his grandfather remained behind, intending to follow a few days later. He never made it. He was fatally stabbed on a train while travelling to India and the family’s property in Pakistan was seized.

The tragedy left a big impression on Deep. After completing his schooling, he came to Britain at the age of 19 determined to restore the family fortunes.

His first naïvely optimistic plan was to become a film producer. A friend had told him he would be able to earn enough money in England within three years to make a film.

When Deep arrived in Britain with three pounds and ten shillings (£3.50) in his pocket, however, the only job he could find was as a bricklayer’s mate, mixing sand and cement.

He said: “The guy asked me if I had ever done any labouring and told me to show him my hands. I told him I only knew shorthand and typing. When he gave me the job I nearly cried.”

After six months he found another job working as a shunter on the railways in Wolverhampton. In his spare time he started a secretarial course at the local polytechnic, where he was the only male in the class. He shared a room with a friend to save on rent and every week sent part of his wages to his family in India.

Deep made friends with a girl on the same course. When she heard he was keen to get into business she suggested he go and see her aunt, who lived on a farm and was looking for help.

The aunt gave him a tray of freshly laid eggs and told him to sell them by knocking on the doors of nearby homes.

He said: “She told me the tray would cost me one and thruppence and that I shouldn’t sell it for less than half a crown. I said, ma’am, this is 100% profit. She said, why, don’t you want to make a profit?” Determined to make a good impression, he sold the eggs and started to become a door-to-door egg salesman around Wolverhampton in his spare time. Soon he realised he was making more money selling eggs in the evenings and at weekends than he was working on the railway, so he bought an old van and became a door-to-door salesman.

It was not long before he became an egg wholesaler. Although his family name was Wouhra he called himself Tony Deep so that customers would find it easier to pronounce his name. The business went well and after a few years in 1964 he married the girl from the secretarial course and opened a shop.

One of his brothers, Trilok, came over from India to help him and soon another two brothers followed. Deep said: “At that point I realised that we had the germ of an idea — and that if we all worked hard together we could make it big.”

With the help of his brothers the shop started to expand. Deep learnt the art of canning food by going to live in Canada for a couple of years to see how it was done and then moved into spices, taking on a warehouse to store the goods.

When his father died in 1970, Deep brought his mother and youngest brother over from India to join the rest of the family.

He originally called the business Eastern Foods but when he wanted to make it a limited company in 1971 he was told that a firm with that name had gone bust four days earlier. So he changed it to East End Foods.

By 1975 the company had moved to Birmingham and had sales of £8m. All profits were invested back into the firm and Deep started to add more warehouses and more products. One of his biggest-selling products now is basmati rice, which the firm mills on site.

He said: “It was a small business that grew little by little.”

The firm now has annual sales of £97m and makes a gross profit of £8m. It employs 250 people. In 2000 Deep was awarded an MBE for services to ethnic food.

He has also managed to achieve something close to his youthful dream of becoming a film producer. Sixteen years ago he wrote the story of his life and took it to Central Television. The managing director liked it and Central Television ended up making 52 episodes of the show, which was called Family Pride.

Now 64, Deep is showing few signs of slowing down. He marked his retirement two years ago by reducing his working hours from 14 to 10 a day.

He said: “The motivation is having a challenge in my life. Why should I give up?” Deep, who has been married to his wife for 39 years and has three children, thinks the secret of his success is passion. He said: “You have to be passionate about your work. If you are not, you might as well work for somebody else.”

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