Denys Shortt was brought up at Langharjan Tea Estate where his father was the Manager. His parents were Peter and Rosemary Shortt. Peter went to India aged 20 and was there from 1952 to 1970. He was also at Rungagora Tea Estate.
Peter was a great tennis player in Assam - infact in his yonger days he played at Junior Wimbledon. Rosemary was daughter of Rev Leonard Meredith who was the Minister at Dibrugarh Planters Club. We think they met there.
Click here for photos of Assam
Like many Assam kids Denys went to boarding school at the age of six at Eagle House School near Sandhurst, England. He was in many of the sports teams there and this is was where he learned to play hockey.
The family moved from India to Uganda (Mabale Tea Estate) for a year and left in a hurry due to Idi Amin. They then lived in Kenya at Ikumbi Tea Estate (Brooke Bond) for three years.
When his parents returned from Kenya in 1975 they started the Shakespeare Tea & Coffee Company in Henley-in-Arden. Denys went to Ardenhurst School and then Warwick School at the age of 11.
At the age of 15 Denys was selected to play hockey for England. He went on to play Under 16's, 18's and England Juniors (Under 21) for both indoor and field hockey. His era was the Sean Kerly time and Denys was in the large selection of 50 players training for the Olympics. Sadly he was not selected for the final 20 that played in Soeul in 1988 - this was when the GB team won Gold! Given that a medal winning team would be likely to be selected again Denys decided to retire from hockey to focus on his business.
Working for his father Denys had a passion for selling and he started his own business in 1994 called DCS Commodities. The company is now called DCS Group and employs over 500 people between two sites - Banbury and Redditch.
In 2000 Denys learned to fly a helicopter and whist at Wellesbourne Airfield he met Andrew Butt - aged 16. Denys and Andrew formed Enable Software that year - a company providing businesses with bespoke software. Enable has now grown to 100 people and is based in Stratford-upon-Avon and in San Francisco. Denys has continued to fly and now flies to work everyday - weather permitting.
Denys has sponsored the Koi-Hai website for over 10 years and he is passionate about keeping tea history alive. His fondness of those days in India still remains and he and his family visit regularly.
In 2013 Denys was awarded an OBE - standing for Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, an OBE is the second highest ranking Order of the British Empire award (excluding a knighthood/damehood), behind CBE. This was for his services to the Government as a voluntary Chairman of a Local Enterprise Partnership.
Moving to today -
Denys keeps very busy - he lives on a 170 acre farm with his wife Debbie. They have 55 Belted Galloway cattle, 50 sheep and 2 million honey bees. They run a regenerative farm - an eco-farm. They have planted over 10,000 trees at home and more that 30,000 trees in Banbury - the DCS woodland.
DCS is now headquartered in Banbury - on a freehold 26 acre site. The site has been developed to a large scale with over 300,000 sq ft of warehousing and handling over 100 trucks per day.
Denys also owns a health and beauty factory - this is based in Redditch and employs 150 people.
London Tea History Association - Denys is a co-founder of this group focussed on erecting plaques in London on the history of tea.
Tea History Collection - In 2021 Denys and his son Charles opened a tea museum at their DCS premises in Banbury. It is for the tea industry and in memory of Peter & Rosemary Shortt. It contains many interetsing items.
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