Bradford businessman Tony Henry has been as busy as Santa over the past few weeks.

He launched a Father Christmas-style trek to meet as many of his 3,800 members of staff as possible.

Mr Henry, chief executive of Bradford-based Yorkshire Co-operatives, visited each of his company's 200 shops, garages and filling stations over three weeks.

He travelled more than 1,000 miles in a region stretching from Middlesbrough in the north to Derbyshire in the south with colleagues Peter Marks and Stephen Johnson.

Mr Henry said: "I shook hands with as many of the staff who were there, wished them a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year and thanked them for the work in the past year.''

Mr Henry has been doing the rounds each year since he became deputy chief executive in 1977 and went round with former boss George Money.

He said: "I am coming up to my 30th year at the Co-op which I joined in 1968 and the bosses at that time went round in the way I did this year."

He believed the company visits would have started many years before he joined the firm which was then the Bradford Co-operative Society. He said: "I think they probably started in the 1950s with the then chief executive, Tim Clarke, and his deputy, Robert Wood.

"They only took three days then, but at that time the company had 60 stores all in the Bradford area."

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