Matthew Algie and Co.
MATTHEW ALGIE & CO., Wholesale Tea Merchants, Importers, and Shippers, 20 to 26, Ann Street, Jamaica Street, Glasgow.
One of the oldest and most respected firms engaged in the wholesale tea trade is that of Messrs. Matthew Algie and Co., whose now prosperous and influential business has been established for nearly half a century, and is supported by a trade of considerable magnitude. Among home, foreign, and colonial connections Messrs. Algie have acquired a reputation that is the outcome of the spirit of commercial zeal and enterprise with which they have advanced the interests of the trade in this city. As a firm, dealing exclusively in teas, Messrs. Matthew Algie and Co. have devoted the operations of nearly fifty years to the amelioration of the various conditions under which teas of a high quality are imported and sold. From the commencement they have held facilities of resource only attainable by first-rate influence and capital, and largely to their active exertions may be attributed many of those gratifying commercial results whereby teas of genuine excellence have been brought within reach of all classes of the community.
Messrs. Matthew Algie and Co., while doing extensively in pure teas of every description from India, China, Ceylon and Japan, have devoted long and assiduous study to the many phases of blending, and the operations thereof they accomplish with the aid of a first-rate modern mechanical plant. As connoisseurs of note, they have endeavoured to place upon the markets the most exquisite and fragrant blends of tea at a range of prices profitable to retailers and consumers alike ; and they have done much to preserve the fine tone and character of the teas which those who have been long in the trade have pleasant recollections of.
In the matter of space the firm are more than adequately provided. Their premises rank amongst the most extensive and central in the city ; and the counting-house, sample room, private rooms, and warehouse are all fitted up and furnished throughout in a style splendidly appropriate to the extensive business of which they are the centre. Commodious warehouses, both bonded and duty-paid, adjoin the premises, and from the magnitude of the supplies therein comprised, it may readily be inferred that Messrs. Algie stand in a position to provide for the largest demands which a world-wide clientele can make upon their almost unlimited resources. Every style and variety from all the tea-producing countries is here held in stock, and we know of no firm that has so well developed the entire resources of the trade they exemplify as Messrs. Matthew Algie and Co.
Messrs. Algie employ a large staff of clerks and warehousemen, and they are represented by an efficient staff of representatives who devote due attention to their clients. In those times of brisk tea-trade competition it is especially gratifying to note the vitality and importance of a house so firmly established on a basis of honourable and straightforward trading, and we need only add that, as Wholesale Tea Merchants, Importers, and Shippers, Messrs. Algie have few rivals.
Mr. Matthew Algie, the senior partner, evinces an active interest in public affairs. He is a Justice of the Peace and County Councillor for Renfrewshire, and since the passing of the Education Act, has shown a zealous regard for the intellectual welfare of youth in the capacity of a member of the Cathcart School Board. Mr. Campbell and Mr. R. A. Williamson, the other partners of the firm, are gentlemen of much commercial talent, and their active and intelligent systems of management have been encouraged and appreciated by the unreserved respect and confidence of those whose requirements they so well anticipate and provide for.
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