Bettys and Taylors CEO to retire

JONATHAN Wild, chief executive of Bettys and Taylors of Harrogate, is to retire, it has been announced.

Mr Wild, who has worked for the family-owned business for more than 35 years, will be replaced by Andrew Baker, former chief executive at Duchy Originals.

Mr Wild, who has been chief executive of the tea and confectionary business since 1996, has guided the group to achieve annual sales of more than £100m.

It has six Bettys tearooms across the region and its Taylors of Harrogate brand is the third largest tea brand in the UK.

He was the mastermind behind Bettys Cookery School, launched in 2001, and is a keen environmentalist, helping to plant more than three million trees.

He is also the man behind the Yorkshire Rainforest Project, an initiative aiming to save an area of rainforest as big as Yorkshire from being destroyed.