A big welcome to our new General Manager!
28th November 2011
This week Andy Phillips joins Tregothnan as General Manager of our commercial operations.
Andy has spent five years managing the successful Roskilly’s ice-cream business, helping diversify into confectionary and retail operations. Andy is looking forward to the challenges of strong growth at Tregothnan both in the UK and overseas.
Jonathon Jones, Commercial and Garden Director, explained that establishing a fast growing brand with a 700 year old history with its headquarters in Cornwall calls for ‘special skills.’ He said: ‘Andy will greatly strengthen the commercial team and improve efficiency. These are exciting times for fine British brands like Tregothnan experiencing rapid growth in spite of general economic gloom’.
This is a new job directly thanks to the policy of The Honourable Evelyn Boscawen who always says “to take the product to the market and not wait for the market to come to Cornwall”. Even so, few expected Cornwall to be exporting tea to China, or for Darjeeling to be twinned with Tregothnan in 2012.
Debbie Kitchen, Sales Manager, said: ‘Andy won't know what’s hit him as he joins in the middle of our Christmas rush, as the estate is open every day for Christmas tree sales. Record orders are coming in for flower bouquets for nationwide delivery, and internet orders from Australia and USA for tea come in overnight’.
Our whopping Christmas Tree!
25th November 2011
Tis the season! Our biggest Christmas tree yet, a 40 foot beauty, has just been cut down and transported to Camborne for their town square...
Smugglers - one of the best!
25th November 2011
Our stunning Smugglers at Tolverne has recently been voted as one of the six best tea rooms in the UK by Red Online.
Described as 'a wonderfully informal affair,' Sara D'souza writes: 'It's almost like having a friend round for a relaxed cuppa. Except here, you can overlook the babbling, camellia-strewn River Fal with a fine cup of English tea, some freshly baked scones, a pot of Tregothnan Kea plum jam and some Cornish clotted cream.'
We are offering you the opportunity to reserve Smugglers for private parties until April, when the cottage will re-open daily for the summer season. To book, please call Joss on 01872 580309 or email jbelcher@tregothnan.com.
Or, if you're feeling peckish and fancy an early Christmas treat, why not order a Cream Tea by Post, which can be sent to you today? Delicious!
A busy week….
25th November 2011
There has been a lot of hype in the press this week about the UK's mild winter and why it is perfect for Tregothnan's tea plantations. On Tuesday we were visited by the ITV News team, who learnt that we are still tea picking when normally the season draws to a close early in October. You can view the coverage here.
The Daily Express, the Cornish Guardian, and the Western Morning News also covered this exciting news story.
On the box, we were featured on Daybreak's weather on Wednesday morning and on Frank Skinner's Opinionated last night.
Jonathan Jones, our Commercial and Garden Director, expects to harvest more than ten tonnes this year, compared to the previous annual record of seven.
He said: "It's been an incredible year for us and I'm absolutely amazed we're still producing. We're heading for a record year for sure. It's almost become an annual growing season. It started very early in April due to early warm weather in spring and we've just seen the perfect storm of conditions since. Summer was warm and wet – which mirrors the Indian climate where tea is traditionally grown – and we've seen an incredibly warm autumn. It's unheard of for us to be picking leaves in November, and the way things are heading we could find ourselves picking them for a few weeks yet."
Let's hope the sun will still continue to shine - our tea is loving it!
Tregothnan’s twin, Darjeeling, in 1947
23rd November 2011
William Bell from Brixham, Devon, was recently inspired to send us these wonderful nostalgic photographs after reading about our proposed twinning with Darjeeling published in The Times. He writes: “I hope these two images will be of interest: one of Darjeeling’s tea pickers, the other of the railway which comes from its highest mountain point to Darjeeling station. As a soldier in 1947 I was stationed at ‘Lebong’ about two miles further on from the town. We could step out of our barrack room right onto the tea shrubs. The first picture was taken by one of my mates and shows the third highest mountain and clouds below - it was a marvellous sight. I heard that the rail line no longer exists due to a landslide. My best wishes in your venture with Darjeeling.”
