What began as a small Belfast grocery store in 1887 has grown into a coffee and tea empire where the beans are roasted just feet away from where you drink your cuppa
On the Upper Newtownards Road stands a business that has been making a stir for almost 140 years.
When Co Tyrone boy Samuel David Bell took over a small grocery business in Belfast in 1887, he probably never could have known he had just founded one of Northern Ireland’s oldest family-run businesses.
S.D. Bell & Co began life on the corner of Church Lane and Ann Street before moving to East Belfast – the location where it still stands and now hosts its coffee roastery, tea blending facility and popular coffee bar.
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Now in the hands of S.D’s great-grandson, Robert Bell, four generations have put their heart and souls into their tea and coffee, making it an institution steeped in history, passion and family values.
After a study identified it as the oldest family business in NI still actively trading and under majority family ownership, Robert spoke to Belfast Live about how the business grew from a simple grocery business to a local coffee and tea empire – with beans roasted right here in the city.
“I represent the fourth generation of S.D Bell & Co – we are Ireland’s oldest independent tea merchant and coffee roasters and, in fact, Northern Ireland’s oldest family business.
“We’ve been selling tea, coffee and other groceries since 1887. My great-grandfather, Samuel David Bell, he was a farmer’s boy – he wanted to go up to Belfast to study for the church, fell in love with a young lady called Jeannie McCausland, who was a very wealthy linen merchant’s daughter.
“He got a job working to finance his studies, working for a grocer’s firm called Dunwoody & Blakeley.
“His father-in-law, when they decided to get married, gave him the money to buy out the two grocers, and so S.D. Bell as a grocer and general merchants was founded.”
Tea and coffee have always been at the heart of S.D Bell since the beginning, and Robert said that through business shocks, civil unrest, pandemics and all that life has thrown at them, it has been the humble cuppa that has been the core of what they do.
He explained: “We’ve always roasted our own coffee, as well as blended our own tea and we’ve been doing that since 1900.
“That happens right on location here – in fact, my great-grandfather’s brother built a home for him at this very junction and the shop was on the ground floor.
“They used to have this field where they kept the horses to tow the tea and coffee around the city. By 1926, he was retiring and so he sold that house to the Northern Bank, as then was, and built the building we’re in now and the factory that we use to roast our coffee in that in the field that the horses had been in.
“We’re still very much at the place where it all started.”
Not many coffee shops can say that their coffee beans are roasted or their tea is blended just yards from the front door, but that is another “unique” element of the S.D Bell story.
The business has survived World Wars, The Troubles, a global lockdown and even saw the Titanic leave Belfast. Robert says the secret to longevity is how the business is run within the family and the tight ownership of those working in the firm.
The busy coffee shop element of S.D Bell & Co has been up and running for over 50 years now and was initially opened as another way to diversify the business when they faced harder times.
Robert explained: “We moved out of the centre of town because there were bombs going off and it was a very unpleasant place, and so we thought ‘right, what are we going to do to generate more revenue?’
“It was my father’s idea to just put a couple of seats in the window and give people cups of coffee and see if they want to pay us for them – maybe a scone or a sausage roll too and it grew from literally three seats to six to 12 to 30 odd – and we’ve now got 110 seats.
“It’s a busy place and we serve breakfasts, lunches and afternoon teas. That was really born out of the adversity of the Troubles.”
It is this diversification that has allowed the company to stand the test of time and be recognised as one of the oldest independent family businesses on the island.
It is clear that Robert’s passion for what S.D Bell & Co does best is what drove him to take the helm over 20 years ago, and leading the fourth generation of Bells is something he is “very proud” of.
“You feel very proud,” he continued. “But you don’t want to get too misty-eyed and romantic about it because it’s a business and you’re employing people and that’s a responsibility.
“So if we were to just rest on our laurels, that’s not the right attitude.
“I’m extremely proud of what we do here but I’m also quite passionate about it – that can be good and bad.
“Sometimes it takes others to come to me and say ‘I think we’re doing the wrong thing’ and it can be a learning process for me too, and I have to be open to that.”
Robert joked that the coffee shop has taken on the nickname of the “East Belfast Stock Exchange” with the different faces from all different walks of life visiting every day for whatever reason – to make a business deal, grab a spot of lunch with a friend or grab a coffee after the school run.
What started as a few chairs in the window has become a thriving little social space in East Belfast, and Robert said his family are delighted to be a “pillar of the community” in the 50 years they have been open.
“When you’re concentrating on products like tea and coffee, those are ubiquitous products – everyone all over the world drinks tea and coffee.
“And everyone who drinks tea and coffee has got an opinion about it, generally quite personally held, and it’s very hard to argue with people if they feel like they know what they’re talking about. You don’t contradict them, because those opinions are generally very personal.
“So because we are so associated with staples like tea and coffee, we’ve always got something to talk to the customer about and I think in any form of sales role, if you’ve got nothing to say, that can be extremely dull, but with tea and coffee, there’s never a dull moment.”
As for the next 140 years of S.D Bell & Co, Robert admitted that the succession plan hasn’t been written up just yet, but that they hope the people of Belfast and beyond will still look to them for a real good cuppa for many years to come.
“There’ll definitely be an S.D Bells in one sort or another – it’ll evolve, and it’ll evolve again and when the men or women in white coats come to me and say it’s time for me to take a step back, I’m sure I’ll do the same thing too, but we’re not in any hurry,” he laughed.
VIDEO BY JUSTIN KERNOGHAN
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