Lewis & Cooper facts for kids

Lewis & Cooper Ltd

Type	Private limited company
Founded	1899
Founder	George Lewis Binks Cooper
Headquarters	Northallerton , England
Area served	United Kingdom
Key people	Dr David Geary (chairman) Jonathan Hindley (Director) </ref> David Pears (Retail Director) </ref>
Number of employees	85

Lewis & Cooper Ltd is a famous food store, also known as a delicatessen, located in Northallerton, England. It's known for selling special and fancy food items. The company started way back in 1899 and is still run by the family of one of its founders.

Since the 1980s, Lewis & Cooper has become very well-known. Some people even call it the "Fortnum & Mason of the North." They are especially famous for their delicious Christmas puddings and gift baskets (called hampers). You can buy these online, in other fancy stores like Selfridge's and Harvey Nichols, or directly from their Northallerton shop.

The Story of Lewis & Cooper

The main Lewis & Cooper store in Northallerton is in a very old building. It dates all the way back to the 1600s! In 1899, George Henry Lewis and Binks Barton Cooper both worked as managers at a grocery store in Northallerton.

The owner of that store decided to sell the business because it wasn't doing well. So, Lewis and Cooper decided to buy it themselves. This is called a management buyout. Their new company officially started in January 1903.

Cooper later sold his part of the business in 1914. He was what's called a "sleeping partner," meaning he invested money but wasn't involved in the daily running of the store. Even though he left, the name Lewis & Cooper stayed the same. The company has been selling its popular gift hampers since 1936.

By the late 1970s, more and more people started shopping at big supermarkets. This meant fewer customers for Lewis & Cooper. To keep up, the store decided to change. Instead of being a regular grocer, it became a special store selling unique and fancy foods.

In 1999, Lewis & Cooper opened tea rooms on the first floor of their Northallerton store. This area used to be where the manager lived. In the same year, the store was even featured on the new Yorkshire Monopoly board game!

Lewis & Cooper also tried opening other stores. A smaller shop opened in Yarm in 2001, but it closed in June 2020. Another store opened in Harrogate in December 2011, but it closed in January 2013 because sales weren't as good as hoped.

What Makes Lewis & Cooper Special

Lewis & Cooper sells many special food items that you usually can't find in regular supermarkets. These include things like Chatka crab, Russian caviar, and quail eggs.

The Northallerton store is huge! It has about 32,000 different kinds of products. To compare, a typical supermarket usually has around 5,000 products. The store covers a large area, about 6,000 square feet.

A lot of the products in the Northallerton store come from the local area. About 25 percent of their stock is sourced from Yorkshire. Rhiannon Batten, a writer for The Independent newspaper, once called the store "one of the UK's most famous food emporiums." This means it's known as one of the most important and impressive food stores in the United Kingdom.