World foods supplier Surya Foods is reaping the benefit of supermarkets seeking to consolidate the number of suppliers in the category.

Chairman Harry Dulai said the world foods category had a large number of suppliers and retailers wanted to change this. "If they can squeeze one guy for 1% it is easier than squeezing 10 guys," he said.

The family-run business claims to have become the biggest UK supplier of ethnic lines just two years after first winning contracts with Asda and Tesco. It also supplies Sains­bury's and Morrisons, as well as wholesalers and independents, and had a turnover of £100m last year.

The company which employs 250 people has acquired its own rice mills in India and Pakistan and now imports Afro-Carib­bean and Polish foods.

"It is incredible to think my father came to England in the 1960s with very little and he is now the chairman of a multi-national company with operations around the world," said Surya managing director Suki Dulai.

The company operates from several parts of the UK and has distribution centres across Europe and buying offices around the world. Its main hub is an 11-acre site in Harwich, which houses its head office, as well as 500,000 sq ft of storage space and 100 delivery vehicles.

Dulai recently formed the World Food Association to try and raise the profile of the category. "I want to see world food recognised as the important and dynamic sector it is," he said.