For hundreds of years, this natural brew comprised of a dried tropical flower was little recognized exterior of South-East Asia. It’s now the highest providing by an Emirati start-up making an attempt to faucet the fast-growing marketplace for drinks within the Gulf.
The so-called blue tea, which is understood for its intense color – it turns purple when a drop of lemon is added to it – is strained from the butterfly pea flower. The Dubai-based start-up Really feel Good Tea sources it from China to promote it within the UAE, Saudi Arabia and different GCC nations and is offered in unfastened type. It can be customised by including extra flavours on request – a key differentiator for the start-up in a market dominated by packaged tea.
“It’s all actually about high quality and expertise,” says Mohammad Al Hawari, founding father of Really feel Good Tea. “The act of dealing with unfastened tea permits prospects to the touch, see and scent the leaves … the ritual of brewing the right cup may be each enjoyable and contemplative,” he provides.
We’ve plans to open bodily shops however we need to go the additional mile. We don’t need to simply have a tea store. We additionally need to have a tea bar, the place you may style various kinds of teas, for a worth
Mohammad Al Hawari, chief govt and founding father of Really feel Good Tea
Based in 2019, Really feel Good Tea is tapping right into a burgeoning marketplace for the beverage within the area. The marketplace for tea within the Center East is anticipated to develop to about $8.2 billion in retail costs by 2025, up from $3.33bn in 2015, in response to a latest report by analytics agency Research and Markets.
The tea market has developed dramatically previously few years consistent with customers’ altering behaviour, in response to the Analysis and Markets report. Tea drinkers immediately are extra keen on high-quality merchandise and drinks that give them particular well being advantages, which has pushed demand for wholesome inexperienced, useful botanical tea and natural blends, it added.
“Shoppers are more and more in search of curated selections and experiences,” says Sandeep Ganediwalla, Indian analysis firm Redseer’s managing accomplice within the area.
“We anticipate to see loads of native manufacturers create choices to cater to the regional style. The emergence of on-line channels has meant that they will take a look at these merchandise nimbly and attain on to customers.”
At Really feel Good Tea, Mr Al Hawari says he personally selects every of the corporate’s blends from seasonal rotations earlier than they’re pressed into what he describes as tea pods – glass tubes that maintain the tea recent. He picks them for his or her distinctive flavours and well being advantages.
In addition to the choice of tea, which incorporates the extra conventional choices, the corporate – which now has greater than 80 gadgets in its product vary – additionally sells equipment corresponding to teapots, infusers, cups and mugs.
The model was born on social media, says Mr Al Hawari, and grew exponentially as individuals started to more and more store on-line early final 12 months as a result of Covid-19 pandemic. Really feel Good Tea generated Dh4.6 million ($1.25m) in income in February 2020 to January 2021 interval, in response to Mr Al Hawari.
He’s hoping for an additional bumper 12 months as the corporate grows its product vary and reaches out to extra prospects.
For that, Mr Al Hawari says the corporate will want more money. He began Really feel Good Tea with about Dh1.5m of his personal cash however now plans to boost about Dh3.3m within the first quarter of subsequent 12 months by crowd funding. The founder finally needs to take the corporate public.
“For certain we now have plans for itemizing the corporate, that is the final word purpose for the long run,” Mr Al Hawari says. “Within the meantime, we’re centered on crowd funding and enterprise capital.”
However the dangers, as for any start-up, stay excessive. For each success story, there are scores of concepts that fail for a number of causes: from getting the product and pricing incorrect to not having the correct individuals to assist scale up the enterprise. Discovering funding stays a continuing problem, particularly as the corporate grows.
Mr Al Hawari understands the dangers that include any new enterprise. He began Really feel Good Tea after shedding a high-paying job within the company world. The incident left him depressed and he spent months in remedy. Throughout this time, he discovered consolation binge-watching Netflix whereas sipping on heat mugs of tea – a pleasure that he says led him to dig deeper into the enterprise of tea, and finally begin certainly one of his personal.
“After I drink tea, I at all times really feel good. I didn’t need to complicate it and so named my firm Really feel Good Tea – pure, easy and straight to the purpose,” he says.
The chief-turned-entrepreneur says that Really feel Good Tea goals to fill a market hole for an Emirati e-commerce enterprise promoting branded specialty tea. He spends lengthy hours researching for merchandise and has travelled the world to seek out premium elements.
Having began Really feel Good Tea from the basement of his home, Mr Al Hawari continues to run the corporate’s operations from there, with 22 workers.
He says he was impressed by the founding father of Australian firm SkinnyMe Tea, which, Mr Al Hawari notes, focuses primarily on detox tea. He’s relying on his greater than 18 years of expertise in funding administration, banking and insurance coverage to develop his enterprise.
“Tea is so broad. There are 1000’s and 1000’s of types of tea – black, inexperienced, oolong, natural. The listing is infinite. We need to deal with not simply flavoured teas but additionally useful teas,” he says, including that the corporate has already began testing varied kinds of useful teas corresponding to detox, calming, sleep and wonder.
To drive that development, the corporate is now wanting past simply on-line gross sales, Mr Al Hawari says. “We have to develop shortly. You have to be on-line and offline to make it profitable.”
As individuals return to malls and eating places, on-line gross sales have dipped from their peak, Mr Al Hawari says. The corporate can not simply rely upon on-line gross sales, he provides.
“We’ve plans to open bodily shops however we need to go the additional mile. We don’t need to simply have a tea store. We additionally need to have a tea bar, the place you may style various kinds of teas, for a worth.”
Really feel Good Tea is correct now engaged on designing its first retailer, which it plans to open in one of many malls in Dubai someday subsequent 12 months, Mr Al Hawari says, with out divulging particulars.
In the meantime, additionally it is in talks to show its tea merchandise in cafes and eating places throughout Dubai to construct consciousness about its model.
Really feel Good Tea has developed a company package deal for gifting, a facet of the enterprise that has seen sturdy development delivering personalised containers to firms throughout all sectors, the founder says.
Mr Al Hawari says his firm is making an attempt to peg itself because the Patchi or Bateel of the tea market. Each these manufacturers are fairly fashionable within the area and Really feel Good Tea is following an analogous technique – placing a wide range of teas in a pleasant package deal you could customise and personalise.
The corporate sells its unfastened tea in take a look at tubes, packaged in a field. Its providing begins at Dh52 for a field of 5 tea sorts to Dh269 for a field of 18 tea tubes. Its most unique providing, the blue tea – known as the Blue Ocean – sells at Dh130 for 100 grams.
Mr Al Hawari’s private favorite is: “Mango Cranberry Fruit Punch tea brewed utilizing the Really feel Good Tea Monroe Glass Cup infuser.”
Q&A with Mohammad Al Hawari, chief govt and founding father of The Really feel Good Tea
How did the pandemic affect your corporation?
A: We began on-line gross sales in December 2019 and as soon as the pandemic hit in March 2020, we had extraordinarily sturdy gross sales as a result of surge in on-line procuring globally. Given we’re purely an internet firm, we now have had big success throughout the pandemic.
When you had an opportunity to do it once more, what would you do in a different way?
A: Relatively than relying alone supply of funds, I might have scaled the corporate a lot sooner by elevating cash by angel buyers or enterprise capital firms. That needs to be the one issue to revise in my preliminary plan.
The place do you see the corporate in 5 years?
We see ourselves as one of many high and well-known tea manufacturers within the GCC, providing a wide range of tea flavours, blends and tea equipment.
What’s the greatest lesson you learnt from organising Really feel Good Tea?
A: As soon as plans are set, simply begin. There’s no must dwell an excessive amount of on the starting stage as it’ll solely sluggish your corporation down. Taking step one will get the ball rolling. After which you may modify because the enterprise progresses.
When you may return and alter one factor about your corporation, what wouldn’t it be?
A: I might not change a single factor. Perhaps we will work on enhancing and bettering the product line up, however with out testing our merchandise out there, we’d not have the information that we now have now about our prospects and their calls for.
Firm profile
Firm: Really feel Good Tea
Date began: Inception date September 2019 (Launch date of the web site December 2019)
Founder: Mohammad Al Hawari
Based mostly: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce, F&B
Measurement: 22 Staff
Preliminary funding: Dh1.5 million ($400,000)
Stage: Seed
Buyers: Self-funded
Up to date: October twenty fourth 2021, 4:36 AM