Kirit Patak dies in a car crash aged 68

Asian food pioneer in the UK, Kirit Patak former boss of £200m Patak’s has died after a crash on Saturday in Dubai aged 68.

The father of three was a well-known Bolton businessman taking over the global brand from his parents. Mr. Pathak lived on Victoria road, Heaton, where he raised his children Neeraj, Anjali, and Nayan.

In 2007 the Pathak family sold its Indian food business to Associated British Foods, which took on the firm’s business and brand except for its operations in India.

 The company created by his parents  Lakshmishankar and Shanta Gaury in 1956, after arriving in the UK from Kenya with six children and with just £5. Poverty had forced Mr. Pathak’s parents to leave their village in Gujarat, western India in the 1940s to live in Kenya before arriving in the UK. They first settled in Kentish Town north-west London, where they began their business by selling samosas from their tiny kitchen in the 1950s. in 1957 Pathak family began selling cooking sauces, curry pastes, chutneys, and pickles in more than 40 countries. Pathak also makes its own-brand products for supermarket chains including Tesco.