while decidedly sans coffee, still seeks to connect with coffee drinkers. 'Teappuccino' and 'Tea Latte' are prominent on the menu board as are a number of, dare I say, suspiciously coffee- menu type drinks. Nothing wrong with that, but I suspect Argo felt a prominently displayed pure tea menu would doom them to failure. Earl Grey, Assam and Darjeeling probably wouldn't connect near as well with the desired clientele like Green Tea Ginger Twist, Tea Sparkle and Red Velvet. "My goal is not to pick on Argo, but to use them as an example
in the difficult, even impossible, process of trying to make tea shops that can compete with coffee shops," Groot wrote. DavidsTea, a Montreal-based dry-tea merchant, will reach
100 stores this year, including five in New York City, with four shops opening in the San Francisco Bay Area, three in Chicago and two in Boston. The company will soon announce a new headquarters for its U.S. operation. DavidsTea was energized last spring with a $14 million cash
infusion from Highland Capital Management. Tom Stemberg, managing general partner at Highland and founder and former CEO of Staples, and Chip Wilson, founder and former CEO of Lululemon Athletica, joined the board of directors. Soon aſter, Jevin Eagle, a top executive at Staples, was named CEO. Kathie Lindemann, the company's new chief operating officer, is a former Starbucks senior vice president. DavidsTea operates both mall and storefront shops that
stock 150 varieties of loose-leaf tea. Cups are sold for $3, but dry teas in tins and pouches that sell for $6 to $8 per 50 grams generate most of the firm's revenue, along with a busy online store. Stores will employ 12 to 20. DavidsTea was co-founded in 2008 by David Segal and financed by Herschel Segal. The first shop opened on Toronto's Queen Street. The firm now employs 1,050.
COFFEE OR TEA? "If tea sales are less than 10 percent (I'm guessing in most
coffee shops this is accurate) then how much time and effort does one put into growing a tea program?" asks Wes Herman, owner of The Woods, a coffee chain in Washington state. "With some effort will you be able to grow sales to 20
percent? If so, over what period of time? How much space (counter, merchandise shelves and storage) will be required or given to this part of your market?" These are the type of questions each coffee shop retailers
should be asking. Just like planning for a successful coffee shop, one must have business, branding and marketing plans. "You might as well have a plan ready before you are forced
to have one when a local tea shop opens across the street and you have to act quickly,
become the local tea expert and make the future tea retailer think twice before opening near your shop!" SCR
" Herman advises. "You might even
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