Brewhaha cracks China

Deputy Business Editor

Tuesday 28 August 2012

A SCOTTISH tea company has just shipped its first batch of products to China and is on course to treble its annual sales through other export deals.

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GREIG CAMERON DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR

The Brewhaha teas will go on display at a major trade show in Beijing which the company hopes will lead to orders from department stores and supermarkets.

The export deal is being brokered by Netherlands consultancy Ray of Sun which is run by its Dutch Chinese founder Wei van der Meulen.

Joanne McLeod, founder of Brewhaha, said: "Our first wee shipment is on its way to China. It is going to a speciality foods trade show where it will be showcased. Hopefully we will get a lot of feedback from it and our partner hopes to get it into supermarkets and department stores."Ray of Sun saw our tea at Harvey Nichols. They want products which will sit happily in department stores in China so looked at British produce in department stores in the UK."We hope to start seeing orders coming through towards the end of September. Ray of Sun already has interest from companies in China and has meetings set up around the trade show. The brand sits really well with young people and young Chinese are crazy for anything British."Brewhaha has also recently agreed a contract to begin shipping to nine De Bijenkorf department stores in the Netherlands.Ms McLeod said: "We just got a call from the stores to send some samples over after they saw the tea online and we are going through the pricing with them at the moment."They have 12 stores but nine of them have food halls and that is where we will be going into so that's rather good."Along with that, Brewhaha is now sending £24,000 of tea every second month to North America as part of a burgeoning sales agreement with the New York Stock Exchange listed TJX.Through the relationship Brewhaha teas are available in chains such as Homegoods, TJ Maxx, Marshalls and Winners.Ms McLeod said the increased demand from stockists in the United States and Canada has also boosted online sales through Brewhaha's website and she is expecting a major boost in turnover.She said: "We first started with them a year ago and they initially bought quite carefully with us. As we are a small business and ship our tea from Sri Lanka they wanted to make sure we could fulfil orders."So they sporadically ordered with us throughout 2011. Then from March this year it has been £24,000 worth of tea every other month. We send out a ship from Sri Lanka to two ports in America and one in Canada."On the back of that our online sales have gone sky high. As TJX have got so many stores only a handful of teas will go into one place."So a person might buy a box, like it but can't get hold of any more for a few months. So they are coming online and ordering from us."If I keep my fingers crossed I should more than treble my sales in the year to September."Brewhaha's tea shop in Buchanan Galleries closed last year and Ms McLeod has no plans at the moment to go back into retail.

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Brewhaha cracks China

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