Whittard of Chelsea
Encyclopedia
Whittard of Chelsea are an international retailer of coffee
, tea
and various items that are used for the consumption of hot beverages. Instant tea, Hot chocolate and Confectionery are also amongst their leading products.
. Originally the company only sold tea, however within a few years it had diversified. The company has some 77 retail stores across the United Kingdom
, as well as providing global sales from its website. They have tasters of drinks which change from time to time.
The company expanded in the 1980s and 1990s in the UK and abroad. International stores are in places such as Abu Dhabi
, Australia
, Chile
, Cyprus
, Dubai
, Kuwait
, Singapore
, South Africa
, Thailand
and the United States
. In the year to the end of March 2007, the company reported a loss of £3.2m. The chain of shops employs 950 people in the UK. Whittard of Chelsea also operate a wholesale business, Boaters, that sells flavoured coffee products. The Icelandic investment company Baugur bought Whittard of Chelsea in 2005 for about £21m.
after its owners, Baugur, was hit by turmoil after Iceland's banking crisis. On 24 December the administrators, Ernst & Young, stated that the company had been sold for an undisclosed sum to EPIC private equity partners.
Approximately a third of all UK stores were closed in the wake of the sale, the store closures and management restructuring continues today.
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, tea
Tea
Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
and various items that are used for the consumption of hot beverages. Instant tea, Hot chocolate and Confectionery are also amongst their leading products.
History
The company was founded in 1886 by Walter Whittard, a merchant from LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Originally the company only sold tea, however within a few years it had diversified. The company has some 77 retail stores across the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, as well as providing global sales from its website. They have tasters of drinks which change from time to time.
The company expanded in the 1980s and 1990s in the UK and abroad. International stores are in places such as Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi , literally Father of Gazelle, is the capital and the second largest city of the United Arab Emirates in terms of population and the largest of the seven member emirates of the United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi lies on a T-shaped island jutting into the Persian Gulf from the central western...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, Dubai
Dubai
Dubai is a city and emirate in the United Arab Emirates . The emirate is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula and has the largest population with the second-largest land territory by area of all the emirates, after Abu Dhabi...
, Kuwait
Kuwait
The State of Kuwait is a sovereign Arab state situated in the north-east of the Arabian Peninsula in Western Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the south at Khafji, and Iraq to the north at Basra. It lies on the north-western shore of the Persian Gulf. The name Kuwait is derived from the...
, Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. In the year to the end of March 2007, the company reported a loss of £3.2m. The chain of shops employs 950 people in the UK. Whittard of Chelsea also operate a wholesale business, Boaters, that sells flavoured coffee products. The Icelandic investment company Baugur bought Whittard of Chelsea in 2005 for about £21m.
Administration and sale
On 23 December 2008, it was announced that Whittard of Chelsea was placed into administrationAdministration (insolvency)
As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry on running their business. The process – an alternative to liquidation – is often known as going...
after its owners, Baugur, was hit by turmoil after Iceland's banking crisis. On 24 December the administrators, Ernst & Young, stated that the company had been sold for an undisclosed sum to EPIC private equity partners.
Approximately a third of all UK stores were closed in the wake of the sale, the store closures and management restructuring continues today.