Tell us a little more about Taylors of Harrogate
Our family business is home to two iconic Yorkshire brands – Yorkshire Tea and Taylors of Harrogate. Our story began in the spa town of Harrogate, where we are still based today, having spent more than a century honing our craft. Though we have grown and developed over the years, we’ve never stopped doing what we do best – producing simply extraordinary tea and coffee for everyone to enjoy, and doing it with a passion for quality, flavour and fairness.
How do you work with hospitality businesses?
Building strong relationships is important to us, whether that is with suppliers or our end users. We work directly with hotel and restaurant chains, and we’re passionate about working closely and collaboratively to enhance their hot drinks offer.
We also work with a wide range of wholesale partners to ensure our products are easily available across the UK to independent hotels, restaurants and cafés. We have a great range of free POS available such as Yorkshire Tea bunting and strut cards, so they can highlight that they serve a proper brew. If any business (large or small) would like to know how to get the most from our products and brands, we would encourage them to get in touch.
Did you have to do anything differently during the pandemic?
Building strong relationships with our suppliers has always been important to us and the pandemic continues to have a significant impact on the lives and livelihoods of our tea and coffee suppliers all over the world. That’s why we announced five commitments to help bring them some assurance during these uncertain times. This included a £500,000 relief fund to support suppliers experiencing the impact of the pandemic.
The fund has already helped farmers in Peru. Due to lockdown measures they haven’t been able to deliver their coffee cherries to be weighed and sold, and haven’t had access to food markets. Our suppliers have been visiting every farmer to collect coffee from them and also delivering food while they are there. To help sustain their efforts, we have contributed to their food delivery and hygiene product packages for farmers. We have also made sure that those working to make this happen have the right PPE.
What’s been your biggest success as a business in 2020?
Despite the pandemic, we launched a catering pack of our fantastic new coffee bags which are perfect for hotel rooms, bridging the gap between expensive coffee pod machines and instant. Each coffee bag is individually wrapped for freshness and contains fresh roast and ground coffee. They work like a tea bag, brewing in just two minutes, making it easy for guests to enjoy a delicious cup of coffee from the comfort of their room. We are delighted to have secured listings in both independent hotels as well as prestigious hotel groups, too.
In addition, we are keen to work more closely with wholesalers and end users, and expand our reach which is why we invested in growing our team this year and will be able to provide even more support to the hospitality businesses we work with.
What makes your brand so different to others in your sector?
As a business, we are dedicated to doing things properly, from our relationships with suppliers to paying fair prices for the very best tea and coffee, we want to make a positive difference in the world. Last year we celebrated becoming 100% CarbonNeutral® from field to shelf. We’re especially proud of the way in which we achieved this, by setting up projects that not only offset our carbon footprint but that also improve the lives and livelihoods of our suppliers.
We also do things properly when it comes to the strength of our tea. A recent YouGov poll showed that 28% of customers are dissatisfied with the tea that they are served out of home. The research showed that consumer dissatisfaction is often due to cafés and restaurants using One Cup teabags, which contain less tea than standard-sized teabags and, consequently, make weaker tea. Yorkshire Tea is the only major standard black tea brand to offer the same strength across all its products, regardless of where a consumer drinks their brew.
How do you support hospitality businesses to succeed?
Our feedback shows that hospitality businesses should not underestimate the impact of serving customers great tea and coffee. We’ve been making tea and coffee for over 130 years, and this extensive experience goes into every product we make. We know it is more important than ever for hospitality businesses to demonstrate value to their customers and that is exactly what our products can deliver.
We would like to invite any members who would like to try our coffee bags to receive a free sample.
What is your hope for the hospitality industry in 2021?
We are excited that 2021 should see the industry returning to normal, and we hope that hard-working operators, hoteliers and restauranteurs are able to prosper after such a difficult period.
What is your business focus for 2021?
We want to improve the nation’s out of home tea experience by encouraging venues to serve a proper brew. Black Tea is the most consumed type of tea drunk out of home, and the favoured type of tea across the day, so getting this offer right is crucial. Yorkshire Tea is the nation’s number one tea brand by value in grocery retail, and customers will be pleased to be served the brew they know and love at home.
We continue to make good progress in eliminating oil-based plastics from our packaging. In line with the UK Plastics Pact, a fifth of UK Yorkshire Tea bags are now plant-based, and we are on-track to have switched the majority of these by mid-2021.
Another focus for us is securing more listings of coffee bags in hotels. Another YouGov survey showed that only 25% of people who have stayed in a hotel in the UK would describe the in-room complimentary coffee offering as being of good quality, with most wishing it was better, and we want to change that. Taylors of Harrogate Rich Italian Coffee Bags offer hotel guests the quality they will be looking for and mean that hoteliers no longer need to prioritise convenience over quality.
What do you think makes the hospitality industry so special to work in?
It’s a pleasure to work with businesses to help them serve great tea and coffee, and I’m proud to work in a sector that is such a special part of all our lives. The hospitality sector is the home of so many celebrations, catch ups with friends and family and holidays and weekends away. The restrictions we have experienced over the last year have clearly demonstrated how important these places are to so many of us.
You are an Institute of Hospitality Business Partner, why did you decide to get involved?
We are pleased to work with an organisation that supports professionals in the hospitality industry. We know how important it is for us to remain up to date with hospitality industry news and we hope our partnership will help us to build our expertise so we can best support the businesses we work with. We are also excited about the opportunity of reaching the Institute of Hospitality’s professional network to build awareness of our great range of products and to develop even closer relationships.
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