Bibby Distribution have won a five year contract with Taylors of Harrogate to provide storage and distribution of its tea and coffee products.

Taylors of Harrogate was founded in 1886 by Charles Taylor, who noticed how local variations in water supply could affect the quality of the tea served in that area. The business grew in parallel with Bettys Café Tearooms, which were established by a young Swiss Confectioner, Frederick Belmont, before joining forces in the 1960s.

The first Betty’s Café Tearooms opened in 1919 in the fashionable spa town of Harrogate. The combination of mouth-watering Swiss confectionery and Yorkshire warmth and hospitality in such an elegant setting proved an instant success. This enabled him to open Bettys branches in other Yorkshire towns including Ilkley, and a flagship café in York. Today, a million people a year visit Bettys six Café Tearooms and thousands more use bettysbypost.com to enjoy the quality comestibles at home.

By the time Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate came together, Taylors had become award-winning family tea and coffee merchants with a reputation for quality and excellence. Today, Taylors produce the finest teas and coffees in the UK, including Yorkshire tea, enjoyed by 10 million tea lovers each day, with soft and hard water blends. Taylors also produce a wide range of coffee including Fairtrade and are committed to ethical trading and social auditing overseas.

Their Trees for Life charity project planted three million trees in tea and coffee growing areas to help against deforestation, drought and global warming. In 2007, this sustainable activity and ethical values won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and Sustainable Development, the Business In the Community Example for Excellence and Bettys and Taylors were voted one of the ‘Best 100 Companies to Work For’ award in the UK.

Bibby Distribution have set up a dedicated operation at their Leeds facility to house the business and operate a daily factory collection shuttle from Harrogate to Leeds where the stock is stored, ready for national distribution.

Mark Asquith at Taylors of Harrogate said “We selected Bibby Distribution as our preferred solutions provider as they showed a positive, ‘can-do’ approach to our business - nothing was a problem.

“The contract has very specific needs and Bibby have both assured and proven to us that these specialised needs can be met and they can respond in rapid time”.

Bibby have had an in-direct long standing relationship with Taylor’s through the Sainsburys PCC contract they operation from their Yeadon site, near Leeds.

Iain Speak, Chief Executive said “This association is very important to Bibby Distribution and brings together two long standing family owned companies. Taylor’s, like us, are strong on tradition and family values – we are family firms who have nearly 400 years trading between us.”