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Racists ruin spice king

1/10/2002

A MANCHESTER businessman says he has been ruined by racists who torched his business.

Iraqi-born Falah Kanno said he has lost £ millions worth of contracts after his spice wholesaling warehouse in Levenshulme burnt down in the small hours of the morning. The building, at Atlas Mill on Chapel Street, where spice grinding and packaging the machinery was housed has been gutted. Overnight racist graffiti had been sprayed on the walls saying: "Pakis go home".

Mr Kanno's company, Afendi Ingredients, is one of the UK's leading spice and herb distributors supplying the catering and retail trade as well as food manufacturers throughout the UK, Europe and Africa. He had recently expanded by moving into Aston Mill and spent £15,000 modernising his new premises.

Mr Kanno said on the night of the fire the smoke alarm had been activated round about midnight. He had investigated with police but nothing suspicious had been found. But the following morning Mr Kanno received a call from police saying his premises had been badly damaged in a blaze.

He said: "After the false alarm I secured the building and went back home and it must have happened just after that. The place is a complete wreck. There's no roof, all the machinery is gone and the stock has gone up in smoke. There was racist graffiti left on parts of the wall inside the building and sprayed outside on a water tank.

"I don't know who could have done this - maybe it's just a bunch of racists - maybe it's a attack on me because America and Britain are threatening war on Iraq and people know I'm from Baghdad. I've never had problems with racist so this came to me as a surprise. I've worked hard building the business and now I've gone back to square one. I've lost everything."

Mr Kanno started Afendi in his basement at his home and has since moved twice to larger premises.

Police say they suspect arson and are appealing for anyone who may have information about the fire to contact Longsight CID on 0161 856 4250.