Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate: Difference between revisions
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In 2007 Bettys and Taylors was 72nd in a list of "the 100 best companies to work for" compiled by ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|The Sunday Times]]''. <ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/best_100_companies/article1474129.ece | title=Bettys and Taylors| work=The Sunday Times| date=2007-03-11| accessdate=2008-05-05}}</ref> |
In 2007 Bettys and Taylors was 72nd in a list of "the 100 best companies to work for" compiled by ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|The Sunday Times]]''. <ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/best_100_companies/article1474129.ece | title=Bettys and Taylors| work=The Sunday Times| date=2007-03-11| accessdate=2008-05-05}}</ref> |
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Staff get to eat for free in in-house cafés, they can move freely around the business into jobs that best suit them and are given "tailored training" to help them progress. There is a quarterly bonus, and most staff are on first-name terms with the chief executive, Jonathan Wild. Although the company takes pride in its staff and its sourcing of local produce, Wild insists [[CSR]] is a red herring. "I'm comfortable with the idea that we are a responsible business, but the concept of 'CSR' feels like the crumbs businesses throw away... an area of discretionary spend that is liable to be cut when times get hard. |
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"I haven't got the right to dole out my staff's or my shareholders' or any of my other stakeholders' money without getting something back," he says. <ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.director.co.uk/magazine/2008/11%20November/Bettys_profile_62_4.html | title=Special brew| work=Director magazine| date=2008-11| accessdate=2008-11}}</ref> |
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== See also == |
== See also == |
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Revision as of 14:26, 9 June 2009
Bettys (without the apostrophe)[1] is Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, an Anglo-Swiss family company with seven locations in North Yorkshire, England. Bettys Café Tea Rooms are traditional tea rooms serving traditional meals with influences both from Switzerland and Yorkshire. Taylors is a family tea and coffee merchant company which blends Yorkshire Tea. Bettys products are handmade and use high quality ingredients, usually sourced locally. The current chairman of the company is Jonathan Wild.
History
The first Bettys tea room was opened on Cambridge Crescent in Harrogate, West Riding of Yorkshire, by Frederick Belmont, a Swiss confectioner, in July 1919.[2] The Harrogate tea rooms later moved to their current position on Parliament Street.
Belmont arrived in England at King's Cross railway station able to speak little English and losing his document with the address of his destination. After confronting many passers by, an old gentleman who spoke a small amount of French managed to tell him where he was going, Bradford. Belmont returned to King's Cross shouting "Bradfat" at any train station official he could find; eventually he managed to board the correct train to Bradford. In the 1920s, Belmont opened a craft bakery in Harrogate, which meant it was possible to open more tea rooms, including a York branch. The merger with Taylors of Harrogate came about in 1962.
The origin of the name is unknown. The company's website suggests four possibilities: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, mother of Queen Elizabeth II (which seems unlikely as she did not come to public prominence until marrying the Duke of York in 1923); Betty Lupton, former manager of the Harrogate Spa; the daughter of a previous occupant of the Harrogate premises who died of tuberculosis; or a small child who interrupted a meeting at which the choice of name was being discussed.
Tea rooms
There are currently six Bettys tea rooms, which all comprise a shop as well as a café. The locations of the tea rooms are:
- Bettys Harrogate - Parliament Street, Harrogate
- Bettys York - St Helen's Square, York
- Little Bettys - Stonegate, York
- Bettys Northallerton - High Street, Northallerton
- Bettys Ilkley - The Grove, Ilkley
- Bettys Harlow Carr - RHS Harlow Carr, Harrogate
The St Helen's Square café in York became Bettys flagship. It was inspired by the magnificent Queen Mary cruise liner and became particularly popular during World War II when the basement ‘Bettys Bar’ became a favourite with hundreds of American and Canadian ‘Bomber Boys’ who were stationed around York. ‘Bettys Mirror’, on which many of them engraved their signatures with a diamond pen, remains on display at the branch today.
In the 1960s Bettys joined forces with another Yorkshire business, family tea and coffee merchants, Taylors of Harrogate, who still manufacture Yorkshire Tea.
Until 1976 there was a Bettys tea room in Commercial Street, Leeds in premises now (as at February 2008) used as a mobile phone shop.
Bettys have refused many times to open a branch outside Yorkshire, claiming that keeping Bettys small means a watchful eye can be kept on every detail.
Working for Bettys and Taylors
In 2007 Bettys and Taylors was 72nd in a list of "the 100 best companies to work for" compiled by The Sunday Times. [3]
Staff get to eat for free in in-house cafés, they can move freely around the business into jobs that best suit them and are given "tailored training" to help them progress. There is a quarterly bonus, and most staff are on first-name terms with the chief executive, Jonathan Wild. Although the company takes pride in its staff and its sourcing of local produce, Wild insists CSR is a red herring. "I'm comfortable with the idea that we are a responsible business, but the concept of 'CSR' feels like the crumbs businesses throw away... an area of discretionary spend that is liable to be cut when times get hard.
"I haven't got the right to dole out my staff's or my shareholders' or any of my other stakeholders' money without getting something back," he says. [4]
See also
Notes
- ^ The name was originally written "Betty's" (with an apostrophe, presumably as a possessive), as one can see from old adverts in the Harrogate store, but at some point the apostrophe was dropped, and it is now uniformly written without an apostrophe – see Possessives in business names and S-form.
- ^ "Mysterious Betty of cream teas", The Yorkshire Post, 21 July 1979.
- ^ "Bettys and Taylors". The Sunday Times. 2007-03-11. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
- ^ "Special brew". Director magazine. 2008-11. Retrieved 2008-11.
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