Our Story

It all began in 1968 when the 5 Wouhra Brothers, originally from New Delhi, India, spotted a gap in the UK market and started serving the growing population migrating from the Asian sub-continent, with traditional Asian foods and delicacies. They opened a shop in Wolverhampton stocking high quality items and provided door-to-door deliveries, and it wasn’t long before the business was thriving.

A few years later, in 1972, they formed the East End Foods brand and moved operations to Birmingham. Specialising in South Asian ingredients, they catered for the local community and went from strength to strength. They carefully sourced spices and other products from all around the world and gained a reputation for having high quality control procedures in place. In 2006, they opened the largest Rice Mill in Europe, and a year later, after the closing down of the old HP Sauce site in Aston, East End Foods purchased the site and built a new cash & carry. They also built another cash & carry in nearby Smethwick and with both branches strategically placed for UK distribution, they had lorries moving 200 tonnes of produce every day, going as far north as Glasgow or further south than London

In November 2019, there was another huge development when the East End Foods brand was sold to Exponent, a private equity firm which specialises in South Asian foods. It was a big and important deal and resulted in significant changes to the way South Asian foods were sold and distributed in the UK.

In June 2020, Jas Wouhra, one of the 5 brothers, and his family, bought back the wholesale arm of the business. They now manage and operate the Aston and Smethwick cash & carries, and although separate from the East End Foods brand, they continue to stock their large range of high quality food products.

From January 2022, work has been underway to rebrand both branches to the new name of Lioncroft Wholesale. Jas Wouhra is the chairman of the company with his son, Dr Jason Wouhra, in the CO role, as they take the company to the next level. They have ambitious plans with the goal of tripling the size of the business over the next 5 years. A new strategy is in place to embrace the latest advances in digital technology, all underpinned by the same family values of Hard work, Respect, Loyalty and Service that have been fundamental since the business was born over 50 years ago.