The largest gathering of ethnic minority businesses in the UK took place in Lancashire.

The ABF Enterprise4all Ltd 4th Annual Event - Inspiring Success Through Diversity - was held in Blackburn's King George's Hall where the chairman of the organisation emphasised the importance of business integration.

Tahir Mohsan, Chairman of the ABF and founder of Time Group, told the 600 strong audience that money had no colour.

"The ABF has been an excellent role model for business integration", said Tahir, "We are seeing businesses in Lancashire being integrated, West Lancashire and the rest of the North West are now following our (ABF) lead and beginning to realise that unless we adapt and integrate - we will fail."

The chairman went on to highlight the strength of the ABF's membership where representation from all minority groups and indigenous community play a part in the organisation.

"The ABF is not just about Asian businesses, we are working with the Afro-Caribbean and Chinese businesses and integration needs to occur at all levels - we are all one community. Money is colour blind."

The Annual dinner, held on Friday, 17th June also included Guest speakers included Vicki Treadell, North West Director of UK Trade and Investment; Joel O'Louglin, Executive Director of Diversity International; Balbir Singh, the founder and Managing Director of PEC Building Services and Lak Basran, MD of Authentic Food Company who gave the audience an in-depth talk on the importance of business ethics and growth. Vicki Treadell spoke of the need for local businesses to realise their potential outside of their local areas.

"Ethnic minority businesses will be better prepared to deal with International Trade because many of those running those concerns will already have links throughout the world, and that is a huge advantage. UK Trade and Investment are here to help local companies gain global market opportunities. "

Lak Basran of The Authentic Food Company has turned his business into a major catering organisation supplying the NHS, Armed Forces, major high street stores and major cruise liners. He told the ABF audience of his experiences in setting up his business and achieving a turnover of over £15 million, and he provided some insight on how business should be conducted, "Always under promise - and over deliver, and concentrate on providing a quality product and quality service for your customer - if you can do that you won't go far wrong."

The ABF has over 1,000 paid up members. It is the largest Asian business organisation in the UK. It has assisted over 200 business start-ups since its inception in February 2001.

The key theme of the 4th Annual Event was diversity and integration, a message echoed by the Chief Executive of the ABF. Khalid Saifullah who said, "It is evident in the make-up of the audience we have made considerable progress in representing the widest diversity of businesses. However, we still need to do more and that will be our challenge for the coming year."