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after their workers well is the ethos behind sustainable production in the long term.
Tea and coffee importers
In 2001 the Queen’s Awards category
of Environmental Achievement became Sustainable Development and there have been several winners since whose core business is tea and coffee importation. In this category last year, two winners were chosen who demonstrated the qualifying criteria with aplomb: Bettys & Taylors Group, based in Harrogate, and Union Hand Roasted Coffee, headquartered in London.
Bettys & Taylors Group has remained a family business and has a tea and coffee supply chain that touches over one million people across 24 countries. The business started in 1919 when Swiss confectioner Frederick Belmont arrived in Yorkshire, married a local girl, and opened the first Bettys Café Tea Rooms in Harrogate.
Nearly 100 years on and the company has a history of trading responsibly, transforming the way it works with its tea and coffee suppliers
to help them become more sustainable in their practices, says Keith Writer, supply director at Bettys and Taylors.
“We have worked incredibly hard over
the past few years with all our key growers
to develop and roll out an innovative new approach to sustainable sourcing. We have a reputation for quality and a deep commitment to doing things properly, be they in Yorkshire or globally, through our value chain and networks,” he adds.
One example of the business’s impact is its work with suppliers and growers in Kenya.
The group works with The International Small Group and Tree Planting Program (TIST), among others, to support tea farmers.
“Our family business has worked with suppliers to install rainwater harvesting and filtration systems in 50 schools as well as
community centres in the area, bringing fresh water to 27,000 people. We have also supported secondary school children with educational bursaries and are funding a 10-year project to plant a million trees with 4,000 tea smallholders, providing them with additional income streams, while delivering environmental protection.”
Winning a Queen’s Award has been a significant achievement for Bettys and Taylors Group and the company has continued to build momentum behind its sustainable practices.
“This award is a great honour and achievement that serves to inspire and drive us to do even more in developing a thriving sustainable future for all our tea and coffee growers.”
“Our family business has worked with suppliers to install rainwater harvesting and filtration systems in 50 schools as well as community centres in the area, bringing fresh water to 27,000 people”
Coffee beans being sorted by hand in Ethiopia.
Queen’s Awards Magazine 2018
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