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Homepage of whittard.com Sept.1998 - Oct.2000
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with 300 pages, one of the best British company appearances in 1999
Whittard of Chelsea plc. founded in 1886 by Walter Whittard in London, is an internationally known tea and coffee chain with over 100 shops. In the summer of 1998 Petra Schenke, a Whittard management assistant, moved back to Germany. In order to stay linked with Whittard she developed a comprehensive concept for a Whittard internet shop. She founded Dita.de and laid the cornerstone of a small success story. At this time Whittard had no interest in doing business via the internet.
Through a polished mix of simple design, reliable technology, multilingualism and pefect customer relationship management (CRM) the project grew by 300% per year. It was an astounding success. Dita had managed to erect a cornerstone in the global market. A British rating institute placed Dita in 6th place in a list of the best internet presence of a UK company.
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Will Hobhouse, CEO of Whittard
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In the spring of 2000 Whittard decided to follow the trend and turn the internet into a core business. By this time Dita had developed into a small company with a number of employees who could work independently on all aspects of the Whittard.com project.
Employees of a well known economic institute convinced Whittard to invest 1.5 million pounds Sterling into this internet project. In April 2000 a modern distribution centre was opened with an E-launch party and the new concept was introduced to the public. At the same time an international team of renowned companies and Whittard employees were working on a complex, modern web site with shop function to meet the highest needs.
As well as this the best-of-british.com was bought for 1 million pounds sterling.
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Handing over of the project in 2000
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On 20 June 2000 Petra Schenke handed over the whittard.com project to Giles Hilton, Whittard's Product Director in a symbolic ceremony.
In November 2000 the new team started with the new web site.
We wish Whittard great success.
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