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Cadena Cafes Limited was a chain of coffee shops in South West England. It was established in 1895 under the name Lloyd's Oriental Cafe, subsequently Lloyd's Cadena Cafes Ltd. It became Cadena Cafes Ltd in 1907 and went on to operate over twenty branches. It was eventually taken over by Tesco in January 1965 and the cafes closed during the 1970s. It was listed on the Bristol Stock Exchange; from 1927 to at least 1950, its AGMs were fully reported by the Western Daily Press.
Contents
Expansion
In 1902, Lloyds Oriental Cafe had branches in Bristol, Oxford, Hastings, Southsea, Tunbridge Wells and Richmond which served a coffee blend they called "Cadena". In 1919, the company – by then itself known as Cadena – purchased the Cheltenham cafes Cosy Corner and the Oriental Cafe from Ernest Edward Marfell who became a director of the Cadena company. They considerably expanded Cosy Corner. In 1924, Cadena expanded their Wine Street, Bristol branch to include a "grill room" for gentlemen only.
The growth of the company from 1927 can be tracked through the Western Daily Press AGM reports though sometimes similar announcements are made two years running. At their 34th AGM in 1927 they began a long tradition of holding their AGM at the then-new Berkeley Cafe in Bristol (which is now a Wetherspoons). They replaced their Bournemouth branch with a new one in Christchurch Road and bought a new site in Broad Street, Reading. In 1928 they opened in Oxford, started building in Salisbury and opened a new bakery in Bristol. Reading and Salisbury opened in 1929. Apart from the major acquisition of the Dellers company in 1933, the 1930s saw less expansion with the purchase a Winchester site in 1930 which eventually opened in 1934.
In 1932 and 1934 the company sold more shares. The prospectuses give details of company activities and contractual commitments at the time. They therefore provide details of the cafes as they were in the early 1930s.
After this, development of a Worcester cafe was started in 1936 and opened in 1937 but 1939 saw the closure of the Leamington bakery and the Pantiles cafe in Tunbridge Wells. The 1940s saw a return to financial health despite wartime taxation. In 1942 they bought land at Brislington for a new bakery planned to be built after the war, and when that eventually opened in 1949 (albeit across the road in an existing building, not new build), they opened a new cafe at the former bakery site it replaced and launched a new "Cadenita" brand upstairs in the Ritz Cinema, Bristol. (The cinema opened in 1938 but closed thirty years later.)
Facilities
The cafes contained a range of different dining rooms for different purposes. For example, the Cadena at the Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells, opened in 1902 with a gentlemen's smoking room and a ladies' tea room. There were plans in Cheltenham in 1919 to add an upstairs "dining salon" and a roof garden and by 1924 Wine Street had a "Grill Room" with a "quick lunch counter". The Berkeley Cafe was already large enough to hold the AGM in 1927 but was having an additional 250-seat room constructed. In 1931, Botherway's was advertising a ground floor cafe and "the Connaught suite of rooms" on the first floor. There are frequent mentions in the AGM reports of premises being extended.
The cafes were also music and dance venues. The Cadena at 40 White Rock, Hastings, began "musical afternoon teas" in 1903. The Cosy Corner had a music licence in 1919. In 1944, Eastgate (Gloucester) was being used as a venue for ballet lessons and public dances.
Wartime
The outbreak of World War I led to mass enlistment and consequently labour shortages. Cadena was taken to court in 1914 for employing a fourteen-year-old in the Bristol bakery for longer than the permitted hours for an underage child. The company apologised but said it had been forced into that position because six of their staff had enlisted.
World War II features far more significantly in the press stories and annual general meeting reports. There was much discussion of wartime taxation. Cafes were destroyed in the Southampton Blitz, the Exeter Blitz and the Bristol Blitz and Cadena struggled to get permission to open temporary branches on the bomb sites. Later, in the Southampton and Exeter redevelopments, the local councils compulsory purchased the land occupied by the shops and leased it back to Cadena, which meant they were now having to pay a lease on land they formerly owned. In Bristol, they fought the postwar creation of the Broadmead Shopping Centre because it would take business away from the existing shopping centre where the cafe was located.
Labour relations
The 1914 court case was for requiring a 14-year-old to work excessive hours in the bakery. In 1939, part of the reason for extending the Southampton branch was to comply with the Factory Act, implying that their staff facilities were not state-of-the-art at the time. However in the 1930s they set up a fund to reward loyal staff but also to provide financial support to staff who were struggling financially. At one AGM it was remarked that the directors were all actively employed at Cadena branches or bakeries, and it is noticeable that between 1916 and at least 1950 they only had four different Chairmen:
There was an annual tradition of the directors hosting staff social events at different branches in the new year. Amongst numerous examples, in January 1925 staff in Bristol enjoyed a whist drive and musical performances. A subsidised savings scheme was announced in 1929. A "Staff Assistance Reserve" fund was established in the 1930s depression and, announced at the 1947 AGM, it was extended to provide pensions.
Tesco takeover
Tesco's bid for Cadena Cafes Limited was announced in The Times on 14 January 1965. and by 9 February 1965 it was well underway. In March, The Times reported that "offers to acquire the preference and ordinary shares of Cadena Cafes not already owned by Tesco have been received in respect of over 90 per cent of each class". It was intended to introduce Cadena cafes into Tesco supermarkets and to start selling Cadena pastries and cakes. Sarah Ryle estimates that there were forty-nine Cadena cafes and bakeries at the time of the takeover. By 1967, Tesco had plans to expand Cadena's bakery operation but this did not materialise and the former Cadena Cafes Limited subsidiary company was eventually renamed as Tesco International Internet Retailing Limited in 2011.
In 2007, the BBC reported the death of former Cadena director and shareholder John George White who had retired from Cadena in 1961 and made his fortune from the Tesco shares he received when the company was later sold.
Legacy
The Tunbridge Wells premises are now called Cadena House. Cadena Cafes are frequently mentioned in passing on nostalgia websites. Slightly longer articles recall the cafes in more detail, for example Southampton, Tunbridge Wells, Oxford, and Reading. The Southampton article recalls the menu, their wartime experience, and murals of local shipping scenes including the RMS Queen Elizabeth sailing from the Ocean Terminal. It is interesting that the murals are mentioned, given the prestigious murals at the Cabot in Bristol. The Tunbridge Wells article recalls the protocol, the menu and the skills of the waitresses, and points out that the last manager's grandchildren are still in the trade. As with Southampton, the artwork is mentioned, this time having the decor designed by Roger Fry. The Oxford article describes the business and calls for readers to contribute their own stories about the Cadena. The Reading article is actually a letter from a reader about the cinema building the Cadena occupied but it digresses to mention that the "freshly roasted coffee beans’ aroma wafted across Broad Street" and explain the sloping floor.