On This Day, 8 February 1917

Birmingham Mail

Thursday 8 February 1917

COFFEE HOUSE BOOM

SUCCESS OF THE BIRMINGHAM COMPANY

Increasing popularity of the coffee house was reported at the annual meeting of the Birmingham Coffee House Company at the Cobden Hotel this morning under the chairmanship of Mr. S. E. Short (managing director). In a moving adoption of the report, which recommended a dividend of 10 percent., less income tax, the chairman pointed out that the trade of the country, and theirs in particular, had been subjected to all sorts of vicissitudes; the food supply had been uncertain and very expensive, but with the large amount of money being spent in the city their business had received a considerably increased turnover, and but for that they would have been in a more difficult position than they were today. The labour question had been a serious one; they had lost many of their employees, whose places had been maintained by women employees and the older members of the company. He paid a high tribute to the late Mr. Joel Cadbury, who had been intimately associated with the company for many years. The report was approved.

In reply to a query as to the amount of profit earned by the various houses run by the company, the Chairman said coffee houses had never done better during the whole of their existence than in the last three years.