Levi Roots

Levi Roots, born Keith Valentine Graham on 24 June 1958 in Clarendon, Jamaica, is a Jamaican-British entrepreneur whose brand sits alongside Heinz, Marmite and Hellmann’s in British supermarkets. He arrived in the UK aged 11 after being raised by his grandmother, whose teaching forms the explicit emotional and commercial anchor of the Reggae Reggae Sauce brand. He performed with James Brown and Maxi Priest, was nominated for a Best Reggae Act MOBO award in 1998, and was a friend of Bob Marley in Marley’s London period. His commercial trajectory was defined by his 2007 appearance on Dragons’ Den, where he pitched Reggae Reggae Sauce with a guitar and a song, secured a £50,000 investment from Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh, and within weeks was supplying Sainsbury’s with an initial order of 250,000 bottles, out-selling Heinz tomato ketchup in the immediate launch window. According to The Sunday Times Rich List, Roots is now worth an estimated £30 million. Beyond the core brand, Roots is Chair of St Pauls Carnival in Bristol (2021, ), Patron of RIFT Social Enterprise (2024,, supporting people with convictions and the long-term unemployed into self-employment), holds two honorary doctorates (University of the West of England, University of Westminster), and has authored multiple cookbooks and fronted BBC2’s Caribbean Food Made Easy. He appeared on Off The Agenda in Season 1 (2021) in conversation with Sir Charles Bowman during COVID lockdown. This profile is an analyst-rated Leadership Index draft produced under the methodology introduced in Version 4.0 of the AI Future-Proofing Strategy. It is prepared as a draft for subject validation, not as a final assessment.