Specialty Coffee Retailer is a publication for owners, managers and employees of retail outlets that sell specialty coffee. Its scope includes best sales practices, supplies, business trends and anything else to assist the small coffee retailer.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/92590
How Lipton went cold Unilever got burned by tea retailing in the 1990s. Is the company preparing to jump in again? BY DAN BOLTON venture. Grocery and mass market sales were solid, and sales in F iſteen years ago rumors began circulating that a massive beverage corporation was launching a branded tea retail the company's foodservice and hotel channels were robust. It seemed the perfect time for this multi-billion-dollar brand to break from the pack of packaged goods suppliers and establish a national tea chain. The café's name: The Lipton Tea House. The concept store opened in December 1997 in Old Town Pasadena, an affluent and storied shopping district scanned enviously every sunny News Year' the attempt and outcome. The teahouse sold 52 kinds of loose teas unavailable in Tournament of Roses Parade make their way to the Rose Bowl. Lipton's then-Director of Tea Buying Peter Goggi remembers s Day as the floats of the per-check targets," he says. Nonetheless, it gave Lipton "an unprecedented opportunity "They came close, but never quite hit their foot traffic and to sit down face-to-face with our customer and understand their needs, try to develop new products for them," Goggi says. "It was a really useful consumer laboratory for out-of-home offerings. The experiment led to branding standalone beverage solutions in quick-serve like you see with B.W. Cooper tea and Fuze in Subways," he said. Unilever has since conducted other experiments with tea retailing overseen by Hartog-Union in Belgium and with Bru World branded coffee shops in Mumbai, India. None took hold. In the ensuing years Nestlé's Nespresso brand established Week published a job circular soliciting a manager to help create "the definitive tea experience. other channels. Canned Lipton iced tea was not available. The storefront's light wood and chrome interior resembled a Starbucks. Patrons could order scones and a tea latte made from tea, milk, cinnamon and other spices. "The idea is to show consumers how interesting and diverse tea can be," Gasper Ferraro, director of finance for Lipton's food service division, told London-based Design Week in Feb. 1999. Here is the magazine's account: "Lipton thinks America may be ready for teahouses. Tea sales have been growing by 5 percent a year, thanks to New Age beverages like Snapple and Fruitopia and fruity herbal teas from Celestial Seasonings," wrote Design Week. "Lipton, the nation's largest tea company with 35 percent of the $3.3-billion market, isn't taking any chances with tea. British-based Unilever said it zeroed in on this region for its pilot teahouse because Southern Californians tend to try new things. It chose Pasadena's Old Town area because it has heavy foot traffic, with a mixture of locals and tourists." Goggi, now vice president of the Tea Association of the USA, recalls the experiment fondly. 22 coffee boutiques on the European continent, the UK and the U.S. in New York and Boston. Combined with its capsule equipment, Nespresso topped $3.6 billion in sales in 2011. Then, this fall, rumors began circulating again. Marketing brands under discussion were LanChoo, Lyons, Brooke Bond D and PG Tips, the UK's top selling tea. Unilever would not confirm that concept stores would be " This time the Unilever constructed this fall with a global roll-out in 2013 and full roll- out by 2017. Observers note the success of Nespresso and that Starbucks recently introduced its own single-serve machine for making in-home lattes and espresso. Unilever is missing an opportunity, but must also avoid upsetting large grocery and mass market outlets as well as foodservice customers that could view cafes as competition. But the most challenging aspects date to 1999. Can Lipton, a foothold for the top-selling greens, and oolongs, Rooibos, puers and popular herbal blends we see today. It is certainly harder to stand out from the crowd. In the perceived as a fine but common tea, wear the robes of a premium brand? Lipton's selection of 52 unique teas might have established early 1990s there were five trademarked U.S. tea companies selling specialty tea: R.C. Bigelow, Golden Moon of Seattle (Yogi), The Republic of Tea in San Francisco, Tazo and Stash. Now, even excluding online-only ventures, there are hundreds. SCR