Record sales for Bettys
Family business Bettys has had a record Christmas period with sales up 14% on the year before.
The business, which is almost a century old, operates the famous Bettys tea rooms, as well as in-branch shops and its online brand.
Online sales were up 30% on last year which the Harrogate company said was down to a “significant” rise in customer numbers and the average spend of corporate clients.
Orders through Bettys online saw 23.8% more parcels shipped than last year with 47,600 parcels shipped through the Christmas period.
In Bettys six Cafe Tea Room branches in Yorkshire, sales over the Christmas period grew 8.2% with a total of 202,000 customers served in catering and 155,000 in retail.
Bettys managing director, Simon Eyles, said: “I’ve joined Bettys at a time when we’re looking towards our centenary in 2019 and choosing how we will remain an experience that people across the world seek out for generations to come.
“Our sales this Christmas across all our areas of our business highlight how important Bettys is to our customers. We’re delighted that so many customers, with so many choices available to them, seem to have decided there really is no place like Bettys.”
For the year to October 2015, the Bettys and Taylors Group, which includes Taylors of Harrogate – makers of the famous Yorkshire Tea brand – turned over £163m, well up on the year before. Pre-tax profits also reached £9.6m.
Founded in 1919 by Frederick Belmont, a Swiss confectioner, Bettys is now into its fourth generation of family shareholders as it nears its centenary year.
