Two Brisbane brothers have landed a deal with Woolworths and Coles with the hope they will transform an every day item from boring to “cool”.
Chris and Lawrence Seaton started their business Origin Tea nine years ago as their father owned a tea plantation in Sri Lanka.
The Australian operation of Origin Tea, which was started in their garage, now brings in $3 million in annual revenue but it wasn’t always smooth sailing for the siblings.
“When we first launched in Australia, we wanted to take on the big brands like Liptons and all these named brands, and we actually learned the hard way that all these companies have large marketing budgets and are spending millions a year on marketing,” Chris told news.com.au.
“And tea is one of those products that people are really brand loyal, so the first two years we made a pretty big mistake and had to change our entire business strategy.”
This included bringing in a whole container of tea with hundreds of tea bags in boxes that they couldn’t sell. Instead they had to liquidate it through clearance warehouses, costing them a whopping $200,000.
“At one point I was trying to sell packets of tea at the markets for $1.50 or $2 with a hundred in the box and at the end of day I was collecting $100 of cash at the markets, and I was like I don’t think this is really worth it,” added Chris.
Then as the popularity of single-origin coffee started to take off, the duo realized it was an opportunity to take tea to that level by offering transparency on what people were drinking.
They also started to partner with coffee roasters, building brand recognition in Australia’s cafes.
It also helped them to become what they say was the fastest-growing consumer tea business in Australia, off the back of some partnerships with the likes of Coca Cola and Campos, while also riding the kombucha boom of 2016-17.
The tea was the basis for the original Remedy kombucha brew which grew to a million-dollar contract within a year and then doubled as the company went from needing 20 kgs to 150,000 kgs almost overnight.
Chris said many people aren’t aware that there is a huge difference between how tea is made.
It starts early too with Sri Lankan tea hand-picked based on whether the leaf is ready, rather than tea from Vietnam, India or even Australia being mechanically harvested where the heads of tea bushes are just cut off, Chris explained.
People often blend the tea from different countries to lower the overall price, but Chris said that also impacts the taste.
“Sri Lanka is renowned in the world as having the best quality tea from a taste perspective, however it comes at a premium,” he said.
“When we talk taste in tea it’s like good liquor, like a good whiskey or wine.”
The business now goes through up to 200,000 kgs of tea a year, which could jump further with the major supermarket deal, which will sell the product at up to 700 stores nationally.
The deal has also helped Origin Tea to bounce back after 70 per cent of its business was wiped out overnight when the pandemic hit, Chris said.
Woolworths and Coles will stock its Sticky Chai range, tea mixed with spices infused in a coconut sweetener, and retail for $9 for 120g, alongside a turmeric elixir series.
Both hope the new products will shake up the stale category.
“I think traditional tea is on the decline, so black and green teas, and where we play in and where we like to see us, is as the innovators in the tea space. Our main mission with Origin Tea is to make tea cool again,” Chris said.
“Tea is seen as a stagnant stale category, and the Sticky Chai product is something innovative, infusing tea with other ingredients or to come up with an awesome iced tea that is ready to drink and concentrates like syrups so you can garnish it with alcohol or make your own cocktails or mocktails.
“That’s where we see tea playing in the future as being creative with tea.”