Bettys and Taylors win Queen’s Award for Enterprise

Bettys and Taylors have won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development.

The business, based in Harrogate, is best known for its Yorkshire Tea and Bettys tearooms has a global tea and coffee supply chain which works in partnership with more than one million farmers and workers in 22 countries.

The award recognised the company’s work to integrate sustainability and collaboration with suppliers, partners, and the wider industry, to address social and environmental challenges within the industry.

Amongst these were projects in developing countries to install clean water systems; support tree planting partnerships; improve living and working conditions of workers, and to provide training to women in business management, entrepreneurial, literacy and financial skills.

Three children, Kenya, planting trees

Planting trees in Kenya Credit: Bettys and Taylors

Keith Writer, Supply Director at Taylors, said:

“Over the last five years, we’ve relentlessly focused on securing quality tea and coffee in partnership with our suppliers on the social and environmental issues they face, alongside addressing the systemic challenges across the tea and coffee supply chain through industry initiatives.

“We acknowledge there is always more to do, however we are honoured to be recognised for our ongoing efforts.”

The Queen’s Awards are presented in four categories and are decided each year by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister and her panel of judges. The winners are announced on the Queen’s birthday, and are valid for five years.

B&T also received a Queen’s Award in 2001, 2007, and 2017 for its commitment to sustainability.

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£5,000 grants available to schools and parish councils

Bettys and Taylors Family Fund is inviting parish councils and schools to apply for grants of up to £5,000.

The fund supports Yorkshire-based groups working to improve the lives of local children and young people through food.

Cookery courses, healthy eating initiatives and food hygiene are examples of the kind of schemes eligible for funding.

Grants range from £500 to £5,000 and must benefit people living in Yorkshire.

Parish councils and schools are eligible to apply providing the grant is used for purposes outside their usual remit.

As Bettys and Taylors is a food and hospitality business, the fund aims to support local food-based projects.

The fund opened for applications this week and closes on April 28. Groups will find out by mid-June if they have been successful.

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Bettys and Taylors offers £5,000 grants to help charities

Groups across the Harrogate district are encouraged to apply for grants of up to £4,000 to support local charities and community groups.

Bettys and Taylors Coronavirus Community Fund aims to help organisations which are finding it hard to fund running costs due to the covid pandemic.

The grants are open to a range of groups, including voluntary groups, registered charities, co-operatives, social enterprises and community interest companies.

Examples of areas which the fund can help is rental, heating and lighting costs.

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The fund, which is operated by Two Ridings Community Foundation, is focused on supporting those organisations which support health and wellbeing and reduce inequalities and loneliness.

Bettys said on its website:

“It is recognised that one of the most difficult things for many small charities and community groups is finding funding for the ‘business as usual’ every day running costs from heating and lighting to staffing and rent.

“This has become especially difficult at a time when the fundraising activities that would usually support these costs has been dramatically reduced and with much uncertainty around when it might be able to resume.”

Those successful could receive grants of between £500 and £5,000. Grants are available to groups across Yorkshire.

Applications close on 14 March, 2022.

For more information on eligibility and how to apply, visit the Two Ridings Community Foundation website here.

Harrogate district firm ends sponsorship with Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Yorkshire Tea, which is based in the Harrogate district, has ended its sponsorship of Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

Yorkshire, which has many members and supporters in the district, has been fiercely criticised for saying it didn’t plan to take any disciplinary action against individuals following an investigation into the allegations by former player Azeem Rafiq.

The row escalated today when it was revealed Yorkshire chairman Roger Hutton, chief executive Mark Arthur and director of cricket Martyn Moxon would be questioned by MPs on November 16.

Now, Yorkshire Tea, which is part of the Bettys and Taylors Group based in Harrogate, revealed today it has ended its sponsorship with the club.

A spokesperson for Yorkshire Tea told the Stray Ferret:

“We were upset to read about the experiences of Azeem Rafiq during his time at Yorkshire County Cricket Club. We wholeheartedly believe that cricket should be a sport for everyone, but his experiences and the way the panel report has been handled don’t reflect that.

“Our current sponsorship of YCCC was naturally coming to an end but we have taken the decision to end it with immediate effect.”

Meanwhile, Harrogate Spring Water, which also sponsors the club, said it had raised concerns with senior officials at Yorkshire over the matter.

A spokesperson for the company said:

“We are deeply disappointed at the allegations which have come to light concerning individuals within Yorkshire County Cricket Club and have expressed our concerns in discussions with senior personnel at the club.

“Racism has no place in sport or society and we are keen to hear further from Yorkshire CCC how they intend to bring about meaningful, positive change on this issue.”

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The news comes as Anchor butter, which had its logo on Yorkshire’s website, confirmed it had cut ties with the club.

Meanwhile, Emerald Publishing, which has naming rights to Headingley cricket ground, said it would review the findings of an investigation by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

The company added that Yorkshire had a “great deal to do” to restore trust.

Yesterday, Mark Ellis, chairman of Masham Cricket Club, told the Stray Ferret that the county club’s actions “sent mixed messages” to grassroots cricket and that the club was “extremely disappointed” in Yorkshire’s actions.

Horticap holds open weekend as part of climate festival

Harrogate charity Horticap is holding open days today and tomorrow to encourage children and families to learn how to protect their local environment.

The open days are part of the Harrogate District Climate Change Coalition climate action festival, which is being held in the run up to the UN climate change festival COP26 in Glasgow.

Horticap, a charity-run nursery on Otley Road that provides horticulture training for people with disabilities, is hosting stands by charities and businesses.

The weekend aims to get people involved in environmental efforts and highlight the importance of recycling and protecting local green spaces.

The event is being staged by Horticap and Pinewoods Conservation Group.

Lucy Hind, from Pinewoods Conservation Group, organised rock painting for children and gave information to people on how they can use the green space around them.

She said:

“Horticap come into the Pinewoods a lot to do work for us so we wanted to make sure we were supporting this.

“This weekend is about getting children involved and educating them and getting children out and about.”

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Other exhibitors include Harrogate District Biodiversity Action Group, Essential Needs and Cone Exhange.

Donated scrap

Chris Powell, community champion at Cone Exchange, talked about the Bettys and Taylors community project in Starbeck, which turns donated scrap into usable products and crafts.

Chris Powell with the items made from business waste group’s workshop

“We reuse lots of different business waste and we work to repurpose that with adults with disabilities. We work with the students’ skills to create a product, it could be something as simple as craft items or decorative items out of plastic lids from local takeaways.

“The aim is to get everyone involved and reduce business waste.”

Mr Powell said he was at the event to make people aware of the project and to raise some money for charities with their products.

Phil Airey, operations manager at Horticap, said:

“I just want to promote everybody here and encourage people to get involved in projects locally. So come along!”

The stands will be back open tomorrow 10-4pm.

Horticap’s greenhouse

Recruitment crisis forces Bettys in Harrogate to close early

The Harrogate branch of Bettys is closing four hours earlier than normal due to the worst recruitment crisis in the company’s recent history.

Bettys usually stays open until 9pm but has recently closed at 5pm.

The 102-year-old Harrogate institution said today the covid pandemic was still having a huge impact on business even though lockdown restrictions have been lifted.

Bettys, which has six stores in Yorkshire, currently has 53 job vacancies, 39 of which are in Harrogate. Of the 39, 16 are for its cafe on Parliament Street, 13 for its cafe at Harlow Carr and 10 for its bakery.

Branch director Nicky Sellers said the recruitment crisis was being felt across the hospitality industry but in the past three to four months it had become a particular difficulty for Bettys.

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Ms Sellers said lockdown had brought huge amounts of uncertainty with the industry opening and closing over the past 18 months. She said some staff had left to pursue more secure careers, adding:

“The lockdowns have certainly impacted recruitment in the hospitality sector and Bettys isn’t the only one feeling that. We know from the industry body UKHospitality that other restaurants, cafes and bars across the country are in the same boat.

“The branches are really busy at the moment, which is terrific for us, but without the full compliment of staff we’re struggling, and we’re not even back to full capacity in the café tea rooms.

“We haven’t experienced a recruitment crisis like this in our recent history.”

Ms Sellers added the company didn’t know how long the current predicament would last but she hoped the industry would be able to stabilise again and “people recover their confidence in cafes being secure and fulfilling places to work”.

Are you looking for a job? Check out our jobs page for vacancies in the Harrogate district.

Bettys in Harrogate ranked among UK’s top 20 coffee shops

Bettys Cafe Tea Rooms in Harrogate has been named one of the UK’s 20 best coffee shops, alongside two other Yorkshire venues.

Coffee manufacturer Coffee Friend created the list by looking at all coffee shops with over 100 TripAdvisor reviews, basing the results on how many ‘Excellent’, and ‘Terrible’ rankings they received. Bettys received over 4,000 ‘excellent’ reviews on the site.

Bettys ranked number 20 and may have been hampered by its sheer volume of reviews. It received over 7,000 while only one other coffee shop reached the thousands — this inevitably increased the number of ‘Terrible’ rankings Bettys received.

The tea room and cafe has become a popular tourist spot since its establishment over 100 years ago. The Harrogate branch is its flagship, but there are now six in Yorkshire, including one at Harlow Carr. The cafe at Bettys Stonegate in York closed this year but the shop remains open.

Espresso Yourself in Scarborough and Wheldrakes in York also made the list.

At number one was Bigmoose Coffee Company in Glasgow, a non-profit cafe, which donates all profit to charities.

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Bettys and Taylors to keep using tea supplier accused of sexual abuse

Harrogate company Bettys and Taylors has said it will continue trading with a supplier in Malawi that is being sued over the alleged sexual abuse of workers.

A Sunday Times article today revealed a group of tea pickers, many of them single mothers earning about £1 a day, have filed a claim in the High Court against Lujeri Tea Estates and its British owners. PGI Group.

The lawsuit alleges there is a ‘systematic problem of male workers at plantations abusing their positions of power’ to rape, sexually assault, harass and coerce women they supervise into sex.

It names 36 alleged male perpetrators of sexual abuse.

Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, which produces Yorkshire Tea, is one of several British companies named in the article for being supplied by Lujeri.

Unilever, whose tea brands include PG Tips and Lipton, and Tetley, are also named.

Bettys and Taylors published an 850-word statement on its website today saying ‘human rights abuses have no place in our supply chain’.

But it added at this stage it did not plan to cut ties with its suppliers in Malawi:

“We can’t improve things unless we’re involved, and that’s why news of something going wrong in our supply chain doesn’t immediately result in us walking away from a producer, which can be harmful for the people reliant on our trade for their livelihoods.

“A key foundation of sustainable trade is long-term relationships – and our contracts guarantee that we’ll buy for several years in advance, at a level above the Fairtrade minimum price, plus an additional premium for quality.

“In situations like this, companies will often immediately stop trading with a supplier to try and limit reputational damage to their brands.

“We understand why but it’s hard to overstate the impact of suddenly cutting off some of the world’s poorest workers and smallholders from their source of income.

“So our first position is to work with a supplier, understand what’s gone wrong and support them to develop plans to put things right. If that’s not something they can do, we’d stop buying from them.”

The statement added Bettys and Taylors’ suppliers were “engaging fully and openly with this process”.

Grant Bramsen, managing director of Lujeri Tea Estates, told the Sunday Times it was “deeply troubled by these allegations” and processes it had introduced to prevent abuse “did not go far enough”.

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Ripon charity uses robot cats to help dementia sufferers

Dementia sufferers in North Yorkshire have received a new gift to keep their spirits up during lockdown — robot cats.

Knaresborough Rotary Club funded 50 cats for Dementia Forward, a Ripon-based charity that supports people with dementia.

Each robot weighs about the same as a cat and interacts in a lifelike way, creating a calming effect.

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Jill Quinn, chief executive of Dementia Forward, said people had become attached to the cats after the charity trialed them.

She said:

“They are very lifelike and purr and react when they are stroked.

“They can provide comfort for a person with dementia who is anxious or unable to settle by providing a calming effect.

“One example we witnessed was a woman who was very into arts and crafts, but her dementia meant that she would get anxious and wasn’t able to stay involved in any activity.

“But once we placed the cat on her knee she sat and stroked it – it created a calming distraction which enabled her to stay focussed and enjoy the activity.”

The cats are part of a wider effort to find innovative ways to help people during the pandemic and lockdown.

Dementia Forward, which is funded by North Yorkshire County Council to provide dementia support in the county, has launched a ‘cafe in a box’ scheme.

The initiative involves delivering boxes tailored to each individual interests, for instance puzzles, jigsaws, books, games, laminated jokes and sheets with activities.

Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate has donated teabags and biscuits to the boxes, hence the ‘cafe’ name.

Marie-Ann Jackson, head of stronger communities at North Yorkshire County Council, said:

“Like many local organisations across the county who are unable to deliver their normal support services due to the current restrictions, Dementia Forward have come up with some wonderfully innovative and alternative ways to support people.

“The café in a box is such a great idea, especially as they are personalising the boxes so they are really tailored to be an individual’s interests.”

Bettys and Taylors Family Fund offers grants of up to £4,000

Not-for-profit organisations, including schools and parish councils, are being invited to apply for grants of between £500 and £4,000 for food projects that improve the lives of young people in Yorkshire.

The Bettys and Taylors Family Fund has provided funding for the initiative, which opened for applications this week.

Organisations have until November 9 to submit bids.

Examples of eligible projects include cookery courses, food hygiene training and healthy eating initiatives.

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The fund supports food schemes because food is key to the business of Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate.

The guidance notes for organisations interested in applying say the fund “actively encourages applications to include costs for overheads (staff, rent, equipment, utilities etc.) that the project will incur”.

Organisations from all of Yorkshire can submit bids to York-based Two Ridings Community Foundation, which is distributing the funding.

Schools can only bid for projects that fall outside their curricular activities.

Contact Two Ridings Community Foundation on 01904 929500 for further information.