Ahmed Pochee (23 September 1939 – 18 December 1998) was a

British-Indian British Indians are citizens of the United Kingdom (UK) whose ancestral roots are from India. This includes people born in the UK who are of Indian origin as well as Indians who have migrated to the UK. Today, Indians comprise about 1.4 mil ...

wine merchant A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by winery, wineries or :Wine companies, wine companies, where their work includes: *Cooperating with viticulture, viticulturists *Monitoring the maturity of grape ...

and entrepreneur, notably the founder of

Oddbins Oddbins is an off-licence retail chain in the United Kingdom, established in 1963 by Ahmed Pochee. The chain currently operates 46 branches with 30 in London, 9 in Scotland and across the rest of the UK, under the leadership of managing direct ...

and the Great Wapping Wine Company.

Early life

Pochee was born on 23 September 1939, to an Indian father of

Arab The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

descent. His father had become blind whilst studying Medicine, but despite his disability, he worked as a chef and opened the first Indian restaurant in Edinburgh.

References

1939 births 1998 deaths Wine merchants British businesspeople of Indian descent English people of Indian descent English people of Iranian descent Alumni of the University of Westminster 20th-century British businesspeople {{UK-business-bio-stub