Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate

Bettys and Taylors Group Limited

Bettys tea room in Harrogate
Type	Private
Industry	Tea Rooms, Cafés, Retail, Tea, Coffee, Confectionery and Bakery Products
Founded	Bettys and Taylors Group Ltd: 1962 Bettys: 1919 Taylors of Harrogate: 1886
Founder	Charles Taylor (Taylors of Harrogate) Frederick Belmont (Bettys)
Headquarters	Harrogate, England
Area served	UK
Key people	Jonathan Wild (Chairman of the Board) Linda Close (Managing Director) Andrew Brown (Managing Director)
Products	Yorkshire Tea Taylors Coffee Bettys Tea Rooms Other Products
Revenue	£97 million (2013)
Owner	Fredrick Belmont's family (fourth generation)
Number of employees	1,500
Subsidiaries	Bettys Taylors of Harrogate Bettys Tea Rooms
Website	www.bettysandtaylors.co.uk

Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, also known as Bettys and Taylors Group Limited, is a family company based in Yorkshire, England. The company's brands are Bettys (with no apostrophe), Taylors of Harrogate and Yorkshire Tea. Bettys Café Tea Rooms are traditional tea rooms serving traditional meals with influences both from Switzerland and Yorkshire. Taylors of Harrogate was a family tea and coffee merchant company, founded in 1886, which blended Yorkshire Tea and Taylors of Harrogate Coffee; the owners of Bettys acquired Taylors in 1962. Bettys products are handmade and use high quality ingredients, usually sourced locally. The current chairman of the company is Lesley Wild, solicitor, designer, author and wife of Jonathan Wild, the great-nephew of the founder Frederick Belmont.

Yorkshire Tea was introduced by Charles Edward Taylor and his brother in 1883, creating their company, CE Taylor & Co., which was later shortened to "Taylor's". The brothers later opened "Tea Kiosks" in the Yorkshire towns of Harrogate and Ilkley, and in 1962, local tea room competitor 'Betty's' took over 'Taylor's', renamed it 'Taylors of Harrogate' and formed Bettys and Taylors Group, which still to this day, is owned by the family of Fredrick Belmont, who founded 'Betty's Tea Rooms'. The Group now uses the 'Bettys' and 'Taylors' brands in a number of industries including Yorkshire Tea and Taylors Coffee Merchants under the 'Taylors of Harrogate' name and Bettys Tea Rooms, Bettys Cookery School and Bettys Confectionery under the 'Bettys' brand.

In 2007 Bettys and Taylors was 72nd in a list of "the 100 best companies to work for" compiled by The Sunday Times.

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. The Harrogate tea rooms later moved to their current position on Parliament Street.

Belmont arrived in England at King's Cross railway station and boarded a train to Yorkshire by accident. In the 1920s, Belmont opened a craft bakery in Harrogate, which meant it was possible to open more tea rooms, including a York branch.