In the tea industry, which has a wide audience and a long history, but little brand awareness, TWG Tea is a disruptor. Its product list contains over 800 single-estate teas and blends. In up-market commercial areas TWG Tea has opened tea salons and it pairs teas with patisseries and creates dishes that use tea leaves. Its golden logo can often be spotted in the lounges of luxury hotels and international airlines. Through its product, visual presentation, sales channels and experiences, TWG Tea has built a luxury tea brand.

What you probably wouldn’t expect is for this brand to come from Singapore, a country that does not produce tea at all. How has TWG Tea grown from an idea to an international brand in just eight years? How has the brand built its luxury image? LUXE.CO talked to Maranda Barnes, TWG Tea’s Co-Founder and Director of Business Development & Communications, about the luxury tea brand’s experience so far.

 (Co-Founder and Director of Business Development & Communications for TWG Tea, Maranda Barnes)

LUXE.CO: From the outset, TWG Tea aimed to provide the ‘best tea in the world’. Where does this determination and ambition come from?

The experiences of TWG Tea’s other co-founder Taha (Maranda’s husband) and I complement each other very well. Taha is French, of Moroccan descent and had worked in the tea business for a long time in France. With 14 years of experience in the tea industry and direct links with high-quality tea farms across the globe, he is an expert in blending tea. The tea industry is not as open or transparent as the wine industry, so a good network is critical. I, on the other hand, had worked in the brand management of a luxury perfume, responsible for marketing, promotion and so on. Our complementary prior work experiences provided the foundation on which our brand is built.

We spotted a gap in the market for an up-market global tea brand. From Canada to London, and Bangkok to Shanghai and Singapore, there was not a global tea brand whose store you could walk into and enjoy its tea. This was a revelation and an opportunity that we couldn’t miss.

Of course, we love challenges and appreciate the best experiences and quality. Founding the company was more a personal decision, than something with a business plan –neither of us drafted one. From developing the products to building the brand, our luxury brand grew naturally rather than as something planned. It came from our intention of delivering a better experience to our consumers.

 (Maranda and TWG Tea CEO and co-founder Taha Bouqdib)

LUXE.CO: Why did you choose Singapore as the place to found TWG Tea?

We considered locating the company in the US at first since I’m American. There weren’t any major tea manufacturers or boutique tea stores in the States eight years ago either. But our concern was that it might not make sense, since tea is mostly produced in Asia, which would have meant that Taha would have had to fly to Asia to investigate and build connections with Asian tea farms, then fly halfway across the globe to transport the tea to the US. After processing and packaging, the products would then be sold back to Asia, where a large share of the international tea market resides. This would not have made sense, so we decided to set up the brand in Asia, specifically, in a country where import and export is convenient.

At the same time, we were looking for a place that does not produce tea itself, which gave us limited options. This was because we hoped to tell the story of tea from different production areas, and create a product that represented the ‘United Nations of tea’, instead of a brand bound to a particular tea-producing country.

The consumer market in Singapore is quite small, and our headquarters is located in one of the smallest countries in the world. This is a risk that cannot be taken lightly, but it also meant that we set our sights on the international market from day one.

LUXE.CO: In building your brand, what has been TWG Tea’s strategy for its rapid growth in the past eight years?

The timing of our establishment was critical. In the past few years, people have formed the idea that Asia can produce its own luxury brands. In addition, there has been renewed interest in products with a historical background.

We have always had a clear vision for TWG Tea since its establishment. Taha had a deep understanding of the fact that being a market leader means that you simply can’t rely on market research. To bring innovation to the consumer, we have to be the source. Through continuous product development, we provide customers with new discoveries and excitement. For instance, we have stolen the concept of advanced customisation from the fashion industry and introduced it to the design of our blended teas. Every year, we release limited editions of tea blends with seasonal and regional features. Every aspect is carefully designed, from the pairing of the tea leaves to the packaging design, to the stories behind the product.

 (TWG Tea advanced customized series—Earl Grey Gentleman)

Our branding also includes making TWG Tea the industry guru. Our tea list features over 800 single-estate teas and blends. For example, you probably didn’t know that Hawaii produces black tea. Such niche and cherished tea products can be found on TWG Tea’s tea list. We have even published TWG Tea books on tea.

The secret of our rapid growth in the past eight years is probably down to effort and speed of action when presented with an opportunity. As entrepreneurs, we have to keep moving. If there is a new retailer that wants sell our product, we immediately buy plane tickets and fly over to have a face-to-face meeting with them.

LUXE.CO: As a product, tea is different, since people are aware of its origins but not necessarily of the brand. Would you agree?

Yes. Although it is regrettable, this also offers us potential. If our customers are already tea masters, then the packaging of the product is of no consequence. This is also why China lack tea brands. It is commonly believed that everyone in China knows about tea and actively seeks out good products. But the tea farmers today are wrong about this. With the growing generational change and urbanization, people’s knowledge of tea is slipping away, in the same way that not all French people know about wine. The market needs to be reeducated, and this gives new brands a chance.

LUXE.CO: Distinctive from brands that have multiple wholesale channels, TWG Tea promoted the concept of tea salons and boutique retail stores in its early development stages. What was the idea behind this?

The charm of a luxury brand lies in the fact that people hope to build a connection with it. A wholesale network will probably take a decade to build, and we did start with wholesale. But alongside this, we conceptualised the idea of physical stores. In the first year, we visited many hotels, chefs, restaurants and airline companies to convince them to take our product. But we knew that if we had tearooms or could offer a retail experience, we would be more recognisable to wholesale customers too. Thus, by the time they had decided to develop a link with our brand, we were able to pick and choose our wholesale customers.

 (TWG Tea’s Shanghai location at Grand Gateway 66)

 (TWG Tea’s New York Breakfast Set)

LUXE.CO: What are TWG Tea’s current sales channels? Can you share your digital sales strategy?

Our current sales structure is 40% wholesale and 60% retail. We hope to maintain this balance and spend as much time as possible interacting with our end customers. The feedback from our end customers helps us to better influence our distributors. Our customers also include several celebrity chefs, who therefore not only act as sales channels, but more importantly, provide feedback channels, enabling us to learn how they use the tea and about the experiences they bring to the customers. Every channel matters as, aside from sales numbers, the value of promotion and market research must also be taken into account.

In terms of digital strategy, in 2013 we realized that in the digital age we needed an online channel. I decided to take the usual steps. First, we developed a mobile app. Mobile commerce turned out to be of great benefit. Since then we have also built our website. As well as being able to buy our products, our mobile app is a tea master that you can hold in the palm of your hand. Customers could be intimidated by our complicated tea list when visiting our stores, so the mobile app is a great way to learn about tea.

The coming year will be exciting for our online store. Due to the current restrictions of customs duty and trade protection, we are unable to export our tea to many countries in South East Asia and North Asia. To avoid this we are currently setting up online stores in these countries to enable local sales.

（TWG Tea App）

LUXE.CO: What’s TWG Tea’s global strategy? Have you made any discoveries about the preferences of international consumers？ How do you sell tea to Chinese consumers?

As an Asian brand, we initially hope to build a strong foundation in the country, and while this has been going relatively smoothly, there is still considerable potential for growth. For instance, we have four stores on the Chinese mainland, which is far from enough. Our next step is to explore the North American market. The first TWG Tea store there will open this October, in Canada. After this, we will enter the European market. This goes against the global strategies of many other luxury brands. However, the expertise of the Asian consumers of our products will provide the guarantee of our high quality, thus influencing our North American and European consumers.

In fact, when we first enter a new market, we don’t really know what our customers’ preferences will be. With over 800 tea selections, it’s also difficult to conduct effective market research. We tend to learn about the preferences of our customers through trials over the first six months. It has been 18 months since we started selling in China. Surprisingly, we’ve found that Chinese consumers prefer Indian Darjeeling. Regarded as the ‘Champagne of teas’, Darjeeling is frequently purchased by the French, the British and the Japanese, leaving no stock available, even in India. This indicates that Chinese consumers have a great tea palate and do not need to be educated about what constitutes good tea. Another interesting phenomenon is that Singaporean Chinese prefer Chinese tea, while Chinese consumers prefer tea selections that are not easy to find within the country, such as tea from India, Hawaii and South Africa. They understand the idea behind our brand very well: to discover great tea from all over the world, through a global journey through the tea house.

（TWG Tea’s fine selection of Darjeeling Nouveau）

LUXE.CO: What are TWG Tea’s future plans?

Besides opening stores in Canada and Beijing this year, we will also open stores in India, Vietnam and Qatar. India is a big tea-producing country, which means that this is a big step for us. We will cover all of the tea-producing countries step by step. After India there will only be Sri Lanka and the African countries left.

THE STORY OF TWG TEA

TWG Tea, the finest luxury tea brand in the world, was established in Singapore and celebrates the year 1837, when this island became a trading post for teas, spices and fine epicurean products. The ‘TWG’ in TWG Tea stands for The Wellbeing Group. It incorporates unique and original retail outlets, exquisite tea rooms and an international distribution network for professionals. TWG Tea has the largest tea collection in the world, featuring top-quality tea harvested directly from a selection of high-quality tea gardens, and hand-mixed into exclusive blends. TWG Tea offers new varieties of tea every season in collaboration with the world’s most renowned tea estates, as well as tea sets, patisseries and other tea-infused delicacies.

TWG Tea in China

TWG Tea entered the Hong Kong market in 2012 and the mainland market in 2014. It currently has 10 tea rooms and retail outlets on the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, including locations at Grand Gateway 66, the iAPM mall and the ifc mall in Shanghai; TaiKooHui in Guangzhou; the ifc mall, Pacific Place, Elements and Barbour City in Hong Kong; and at the Four Seasons and The Venetian Resort Hotel in Macao.