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"We aim to run chain of 500 operational tea cafés by ‘20"
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Monday, 30 May, 2016, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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fiogf49gjkf0d  Tea Trails, a brand of Zone8 Tea World Pvt. Ltd, has its brand cafes across the country. The brand offers a gourmet tea-drinking experience to the discerning consumer and brings to India the emerging international trend with a desi twist. Uday Mathur, CEO & co-founder, Tea Trails India, in an email interaction with Lucy Fernandes spoke about the fast-growing chain of tea cafes in India that offers carefully curated range of the finest teas from around the world along with suitable tea accompaniments, justifying the theory of tea pairing. Excerpts:
What made you to get into the tea business?What are your target plans with Tea Trails?
Tea is the most consumed drink second only to water!
Recent trends have indicated that young executives are moving from coffee to tea, as a lifestyle change. Coupled to this is the fact that Tea cafes in the Western world are emerging as premium lounges and are becoming immensely popular with youngsters. Youngsters today are also becoming more aware of the health benefits of tea. Tea is now recognised as a wonder health drink. Tea has antioxidants that boost the immune system thus keeping major ailments at bay.
The café market in India is growing at a steady rate and is currently dominated only by coffee chains. With tea being the national drink of India, there is immense opportunity in the given space and we want to dominate this space through our offerings.
We currently operate 12 cafés across India and our aim is to have 500 operational Tea Trails Café across India by 2020.
Why did you opt for franchise route? How has franchising helped you so far?
Franchising is the best way to expand any business. The knowhow when coupled with the knowledge of various local dynamics forms a strong combination and hence results in a very healthy business opportunity. Franchisee bring with them the knowledge of the local terrain, culinary preferences and a strong business orientation of conducting business in their given territory. Hence, it always helps to franchise the business to these local businessmen who have the financial wherewithal.
We currently have a master franchisee arrangement in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and rest of Maharashtra. These MFs will in turn appoint franchisees in their given territories.
How many outlets do you currently have? How many among them are franchisee-run?
We currently operate 12 outlets out of which five are franchisee-owned and franchisee-operated.
What did the industry look like when you started five years ago? What are the prospects for the growth?
We started about 2 years back. The café industry has been dominated by coffee chains and continues to do so. There is very little activity as far as tea cafés are concerned with a very few organised chains running tea cafés. The Indian tea industry is estimated to be at a whopping Rs 19,500 crore and is steadily increasing. Even the café industry at large has been steadily going. Hence there is plenty of opportunity for tea cafés to prosper.
What are the various types of tea you are offering? Who are your target audience?
We have tasted more than 1,000 varieties of teas and selected about 80 finest varieties of teas to be served at our tea cafes. We serve a variety of teas like Black Tea, White Tea, Green Tea, Tisanes(Herbal Tea), Coolers and the very own Indian drink Chai. These teas are a composition of various teas had internationally.
We have decided also to merchandise the “Best of the Best” teas. We have chosen about 20 varieties of teas to be merchandised / retailed. Our target audience ranges from the youth who look upon to tea as a symbol of lifestyle to the more mature tea drinkers who love their daily cup of tea.
How is Tea Trails different from other brands? What is the concept of food pairing with cup tea?
To get started, our teas do not come in tea bags and are offered in the form of whole leaves thus making our teas more healthy as the antioxidants and anti-carcinogenic substances are preserved in their original form and in the process also enriching the whole experience of taste.
At Tea Trails, everything permeates tea. In fact a lot of our eats are tea infused, which means at Tea Trails you can factually eat tea.
Tea also gives a totally different and pleasant experience when paired with the right eat, just like you pair a glass of wine with the right food. For example, the basic chai had by all Indians can be aptly paired with a bun maska, similarly we have some exotic combinations, like a Lapsong Souchong (speciality tea) can be paired with a Burmese Tea Salad!
What are you expansion plans? What is your aim for 2020?Are you working on any new product launches?
We aim to be a successful chain of tea cafés running 500 operational tea cafés by 2020. It is our endeavour to continuously improvise on all offerings both in the tea and the eat segment. Hence, we also do a lot of R&D and wish to offer the best to our customers. We are also looking at deliveries as a big business opportunity and will do a lot of continual product development for that specific category.
Coffee has grown at an exceptional rate in India over few years, has tea fallen behind? What is your view point ?
It always has been a myth that coffee consumption has increased in India. In fact, the figures suggest the very opposite. The largest consumption of tea is by people in the age group of 18-36, and on average they consume four cups of tea daily. Tea has 90% penetration in India. 83.8% of all urban household consume only tea. Compared to this, coffee pales as it is consumed only by 1 in 12 urban households. In fact even in South Indian states, tea is consumed on an average four times more than coffee.
It is only due to the mushrooming of the coffee chains that there is an impression that coffee as a beverage is consumed more than tea. Tea Trails is on the path today to revolutionise the way tea is had in India.
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