By Michael Gonsalves Dec 12 2011 , Pune
Golden Tips, the Darjeeling-based 77-year-old tea brand, plans to have a pan-India retail footprint, starting with 10 tea boutiques in major cities.
“We have seen a clear shift among youngsters as well as old people, who are taking to drinking high quality tea as a health and wellness beverage and we want to tap this segment aggressively by launching 10 tea boutiques in metro cities over the next two months,” said Madhav Sarda, MD, GoldenTips Tea. He said all these stores will be company-owned to maintain quality and exclusivity.
At present, the firm has a total of 10 company-owned outlets in Darjeeling, Sikkim and Kolkata. The company opened its first store at in Pune on Monday.
“Our second tea boutique will be launched in Kolkata by the end of January 2012, followed by outlets in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Siliguri,” Sarda said, adding that other cities were yet to be decided. These stores will not only allow people to taste the finest and freshest teas but also see, feel, smell, taste and purchase a large variety of Darjeeling teas, he said.
“The boutiques will stock all kinds of exotic teas from Darjeeling, Assam, Nilgiris to speciality teas such as Jubilee, Pride of Darjeeling, Second Pick, Queen of Hills, Flowery Pekoe Green, White tea, Oolong tea and Jasmine tea,” Sarda said. Of the 300 varieties available at the boutiques, over 100 will be exotic brands each with unique flavours, he said. The firm is investing Rs 25-Rs 30 lakh in setting up each store, he said.
The firm has teas for middle, upper and elite classes and also for tea connoisseurs. The price ranges from Rs 50 to Rs 500 for a pack of 10 tea bags and special teas and assortments are priced at Rs 1,500. “For the tea connoisseurs some of the gourmet teas are priced up to Rs 20,000 per kg,” Sarda said. The firm’s gift packaging range in leather, velvet, cotton, satin, rosewood, copper, papier-mache, metal, jute, cane boxes, ceramic and terracotta are popular with the corporate and foreign tourists, expats and diplomats, he said. The filter paper tea bags come in Earl Grey, Peach, Jasmine, Lemon, Mango, Darjeeling Black and Green flavours.
Sarda said the stores had been attracting huge footfalls for its variety of teas and tea related paraphernalia such as kettles, tea pots and sets, tea strainers and infusers, spoons and tea cosies and books. The firm earned 25 per cent of its revenues from exports mainly to Germany, Japan and the US. “Our business has been growing 20-25 per cent year-on-year,” he said
Source: http://www.mydigitalfc.com/news/golden-tips-plans-tea-boutiques-10-cities-956