Lynn Cummings is a familiar face at one of Harrogate’s oldest shops and is celebrating her 30th year with the business.
Lynn Cummings joined Jespers as a sales assistant on April 18th, 1994, before being promoted to second assistant retail manager two-and-a-half years later.
In 1997, she was sent to manage the York store, and returned to Harrogate in 1999 to take up the role of manager, which she has held ever since.
Looking back to when she first started at Jespers, Lynn said it was very different to today. The basement that now houses the art showroom was an office furniture showroom. There were sales, furniture and warehouse teams, and even an engraver still working on site, continuing the service that the company had been founded on.
Lynn added: “I’ve seen a lot of changes at Jespers over the three decades. We had manual tills and I remember all the typewriters on display in the shop window. It was a different type of era, more traditional. We used to do printing, rubber stamps, and we had the pen counter, which was seen as a privilege to be asked to work on.
“Although much has changed, our traditional values of high-quality products and personal customer service remain. And the pen counter is still here, making us one of the few shops in the north of England to display an extensive range of pens that customers can try out.”
After 118 years and four generations, the Jesper family sold the business in 2019 to the Yorkshire-based Vickers family.
Lynn added: “After working for the Jesper family for 25 years, it was quite a change when they sold the business, but the new owners have taken us forward to a new chapter.”
Despite her many years with the company, Lynn is not the longest-serving recent employee at Jespers. Last year, sales assistant Ann-Marie Smith retired after 35 years at the shop.
Top: Jespers of Harrogate’s manager Lynn Cummings outside the shop in the centre of town.
