speciality tea & coffee founded 1886 founder walter whittard headquarters witney oxfordshire number of locations 78 area served international products tea coffee ceramic chocolate owner epic 1 number of employees 942 website www.whittard.co.uk whittard of chelsea also known as whittards is an international retailer of coffee tea and various items that are used for the consumption of hot drinks . instant tea hot chocolate china and confectionery are also amongst their leading products . the company was founded in 1886 by walter whittard . it expanded in the 1980s and 1990s and was bought by the icelandic baugur group in 2005 for around 21 million . after iceland s financial collapse in 2008 the company was placed into administration before being sold to the private equity firm epic for an undisclosed amount in december 2008 . whittards has some 77 retail stores across the united kingdom as well as international stores in various countries . contents 1 history 2 operations 3 references 4 external links history edit the company was founded in 1886 by walter whittard a merchant from london . 2 originally the company only sold tea however within a few years it had diversified . the company expanded in the 1980s and 1990s in the uk and abroad . the investment company baugur group of iceland bought whittard of chelsea in 2005 for about 21m . in the year to the end of march 2007 whittard reported a loss of 3.2 m. baugur was hit hard by iceland s financial collapse in 2008 and placed the company into administration with ernst & young . it was sold to the private equity firm epic for an undisclosed amount on 23 december 2008 . 3 operations edit whittards on lands lane in leeds the company has 54 retail stores across the united kingdom employing 950 people and provides international sales through its transactional website . the company has international stores in countries including abu dhabi australia chile cyprus dubai kuwait singapore south africa thailand poland china and romania . references edit epic portfolio history section of company website whittard sold to private equity . bbc news . 23 december 2008 . retrieved 31 december 2014 . external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title whittard of chelsea & oldid 739213433 categories drink companies of englandcompanies established in 1886companies based in oxfordshire1886 establishments in englandcompanies that have entered administration in the united kingdom navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages espa ol edit links this page was last modified on 13 september 2016 at 12 08 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view