Kenneth Ridley Bell MBE (July 1927 – 20 July 2014) was a British businessman, exporter, and philanthropist. He was the founder and chairman of The Ken Bell Seafood Company (formerly Ken Bell International), which became a leading shellfish exporter in the United Kingdom. Bell later supported the controversial research of Harash Narang, a microbiologist whose work became prominent during the United Kingdom BSE crisis.
Early life Bell left school aged 14, and later joined the Royal Navy. After the Second World War, he set up a small business which sold crumpets. In 1950, he left his father's butchers shop to work in London, where he met his first wife, who later died of cancer.
They later moved to Toronto, where he became the manager of the meat department in a supermarket. After returning to Newcastle, Bell invested £500 into a business which bought tough beef and used an enzyme to tenderise it.
Ken Bell International After buying a butcher's shop in the late 1950s, Bell went into the frozen food market, supplying to the local Chinese catering trade in Newcastle. In 1972, he opened the a frozen meat supermarket in Jesmond. By 1974, annual turnover had reached £1 million.
Incorporated as Ken Bell (Newcastle) Limited in 1973, the firm was renamed as Ken Bell (International) Limited in 1985.
The company imported raw and cooked shellfish from Australasia, the Far East, and the Middle East, processing and freezing the stock at a production facility in Longbenton, and exporting the products to wholesalers in mainland Europe and the United States.
In 1979, he received the Queen's award for export achievement, and at the June 1988 Birthday Honours, Bell was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to export. He also campaigned against the irradiation of food.
Bell was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 1994. Following his diagnosis, he resigned his position as chief executive officer and became non-executive chairman. At its peak, the company had a turnover of £40 million and employed more than 350 people.
By January 2001, the firm had entered a loss and closed a factory in Amble, at the loss of 38 jobs. In May 2003, Bell and his son both resigned their directorships. Cumbrian Seafoods then stepped in to buy the langoustine and scampi operations of the company, which saved 30 jobs. The company entered into administrative receivership under Deloitte & Touche, with the Longbenton factory being closed in January 2004.
BSE funding and research In 1990, Bell donated £20,000 to help fund the research of Harash Narang, a microbiologist with the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) who claimed to have developed a diagnostic test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in cattle. Following Narang's dismissal from the PHLS in August 1994, Narang was employed by Ken Bell International as an independent virologist.
In November 1995, Narang reportedly had his home broken into, his car tyres were slashed and the brakes interfered with. Bell was quoted by The Irish Times as saying: "Someone is obviously trying to scare Dr Narang or trying to discredit him by making him sound paranoid but this is not imagination—the attacks have taken place and are very worrying".
At the 2001 general election, Bell funded the election campaign of Narang, who stood as an independent against agriculture minister Nick Brown in Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend. Narang placed fifth of six candidates with 563 votes (1.7%).
Following the death of Narang in July 2008, Bell pledged to continue his work, saying that: "He was a very brilliant man but it seemed the medical establishment didn't like him".
Personal life and death Bell married twice. He had two children, Janet and Ken. Bell died at his home in Gosforth on 20 July 2014, aged 86.
See also United Kingdom BSE outbreak Harash Narang
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