Two North East giants join forces as Dicksons brews up partnership with Ringtons

The South Shields-based firm, which celebrated its 70th anniversary earlier this year, has invested £100k into the venture, which has seen 28 of its stores being kitted out with the latest in barista technology.

Staff at Dicksons have all been trained by specialists at Ringtons, based over in Byker and Newcastle, which first started selling its wares to the people of Tyneside back in 1907.

The company now delivers to more than 220,000 customers throughout the UK, has 24 locations across the county and provides the nation’s hotels, restaurants, cafes and workplaces with their beverages.

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Elena, who is the third generation to work for Dicksons, said: “At Dicksons we pride ourselves in the quality of the food we create and we required our hot drinks to be of the same calibre.

“Ringtons is such an iconic North East brand, everyone knows it sells great tea, but we now know they make great coffee too - because we’re selling it.“The coffee market is such a big one and we wanted to ensure our customers were getting the best.“

I think it’s wonderful that two old family firms, hailing from the same region, can work together like this.”                       

The ‘fresh bean-to-cup’ coffee is already on sale at Dicksons’ stores. 

Next month will see the launch of new specially designed Christmas cups and both companies are currently working on a mystery limited-edition Christmas flavour too.

Brigitte Keatings, one of the fifth-generation family directors at Ringtons, said: “We're very proud to be supporting another North East family business who are as obsessed with  product quality as us.

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“As Ringtons develops into our fifth generation, we're building more collaborative  relationships with businesses that are dedicated to doing the right thing.

“I was impressed with Dickson product quality and starting this partnership with them felt very natural. I'm looking forward to seeing how the relationship between Dicksons and Ringtons develops."