Good & Proper Tea are London-based, premium tea specialists. They source teas from around the world & custom-brew them to bring out the best possible flavour in the customer’s cup. Having already been successfully funded on Kickstarter over 2 years ago, G&P Tea is now looking to open its first dedicated Tea House, as well as a ‘kiosk’.
Following our launch in late 2012 thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, we are delighted to be now seeking investment to open our first Tea House, the first step towards realising our mission of providing tea-drinkers with the quality & variety out-of-home that we feel has until now been exclusive to coffee.
Who we are
Good & Proper Tea is a premium tea specialist:
– We source exceptional teas from around the world.
– We custom-brew them to bring out the best possible flavour in our customer’s cup.
– We provide all of our teas in packs to take home, as well as the tools to brew them.
Where we are now
First presented as a concept to crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in November 2012, Good & Proper Tea was one of the first successfully funded projects in the UK, raising £14k in just 5 days. Best known for serving brews from our iconic mobile Tea Bar, a 1974 Citroen van, or our pop-up ‘Brew Bar’, we also sell our full range of teas and teaware online atgoodandpropertea.com, as well as via a targeted network of on and offline distributors. Since our launch in 2012 we have worked alongside a variety of brands and been to events & festivals across the UK, brewing tea & attracting plenty of press coverage as we went.
With a strong brand in place and a solid understanding of both the market and, most importantly, our customers, we now want to take the business forward on the journey to realising our long-term vision for G&P Tea as the out-of-home tea specialist in the UK.
Where we want to be
Our aim is to grow G&P Tea into a global destination for tea, aimed at a new, younger tea-drinker. We will do this via a network of Tea Houses in London, the UK & beyond, as well as online at goodandpropertea.com.
Funding
Since our Kickstarter beginnings back in 2012, we have been able to self-support our growth. However, we now need investment in order to take G&P Tea to the next exciting stage. More specifically, this seed round will be used to open the first G&P Tea House, as well as a ‘Kiosk’ in the heart of London’s Tech City. We will also be moving HQ into a space in South East London where we can do everything under one roof, from storing and managing all of our stock centrally, to fulfilment and a desk or two to call our own. Finally, we plan to expand our range of teas & teaware, as well as design and build a new website, making it the online destination for all things tea.
Tea is massive. The most popular drink in the world after water, hot and iced tea represents a $90 billion annual worldwide market, with particularly high penetration in the UK where:
– Almost nine in ten consumers in Britain drink tea (2013)
– 60% of them drink tea at least once a day.
– Amounting to 165 million cups of tea every day, compared to 70 million cups of coffee.
So it seems that us Brits love tea, but yet until now, unlike elsewhere, we believe out-of-home tea in the UK has been overlooked.
Growing Market
We see the UK tea market as mature but diverse. In 2013 the tea market was estimated to reach £683 in sales and is set to enjoy continued growth, rising to £802m by 2017 (best case) with significant growth coming from the premium end of the market. More specifically, the out-of-home tea market alone is valued at £300m, with sales of tea in coffee shops rising to 17% in 2014.
Premiumisation
Our research suggests consumption of ‘standard’ tea has started to stagnate, and that growth is coming from increased interest in both higher quality tea and a diversity of tea types.
“Great taste and a premium proposition is where the tea category needs to go.” Sales Director, Twinings
Lack of Innovation
We believe innovation in these areas is still lacking, particularly for younger consumers. Few are taking advantage of the greater interest in loose-leaf and even less are looking beyond simply improving the at-home experience.
Opportunity
We therefore believe there is a significant opportunity for new ideas to shape more sophisticated tastes and further stimulate growth, as has happened in recent years with coffee. And most excitingly, we have the chance to be amongst the first to market and to position ourselves as the out-of-home tea specialist.
Emilie Holmes – Founder
Emilie began her career at Ogilvy & Mather, where she worked on brands including Toblerone, Hellmanns and notably Dove, for whom she spent 3 years working closely with the team at Unilever. Fuelled by a love of tea and a deep frustration at the lack of quality available, an idea of her own started brewing. On 3rd December 2012 that idea became a reality as Emilie launched her business via Kickstarter, becoming one of the first UK projects to be successfully funded. Good & Proper Tea was born and over the past 2.5 years, Emilie has called upon all of her experience to build a strong brand identity and solid infrastructure behind it. Her energy, passion and tireless push for improvement makes Emilie well-positioned to steer G&P through this exciting new chapter.
Favourite tea: Darjeeling 2nd Flush
Freddie Forrester – Sales/Marketing
First exposed to quality tea whilst working in Fortnum & Mason’s tea department, Freddie’s love & knowledge of tea has continued to grow since joining full time in November 2014. Freddie had also worked for G&P during his University summers, serving long lines of thirsty tea-drinkers at some of the UK’s best festivals & developing an unsustainably expensive tea habit for a student. After graduating he headed to Value Retail, an international retail-outlet company, where he gained crucial retail experience, working in marketing, events, sales & negotiations. This experience has proved crucial in helping G&P expand into wholesale, push online sales and develop their events offering. He is happiest when tasting new teas or zooming around London on his bike meeting new stockists.
Favourite Tea: Yellow Gold
Tom Forsythe – Finance/Operations
Tom has been supporting G&P Tea in a part-time capacity since it was founded in 2012. He currently works for one of the UK’s leading retailers and prior to that spent 4.5 years with PwC as a Management Consultant. Tom brings expertise in Finance & Supply Chain to support the team with Commercial & Operational aspects of the business. He has also been lucky enough to join Emilie on a few sourcing trips, doubling up as a cameraman ; )
Favourite Tea: Kangaita
Partners
Jon Lee @ 20:20 Strategic-Design Consultancy
Tom Woods @ Kennedy Woods-Architectural Design
Ben Benton @ Kitchen Cooperative-Food Consultancy
Advisors
Emily Brooke – Blaze
Daniel Land – Coco di Mama
Joff Brown – Bibo Water
Tom Fitzherbert-Brockholes – VCP Advisors
SALES:
USE OF FUNDS:
EXPENSES AND PROFITABILITY:
EXISTING DEBT OR EQUITY INVESTMENTS:
CASH:
We are committed to building a sustainable business that will take tea into a new space for the long-term. We also passionately believe that there is huge potential within the tea market above and beyond our current focus, for a brand that can be trusted and known for its commitment to quality. We will be working hard to bring that potential to life and hope that our shareholders will join us on that journey but would be looking to offer investors an exit after 3-5 years, likely via a trade sale. Despite being still very much in our infancy, we have already had engagement with both market-leaders in the US & UK tea markets, as well as competitors in the UK.
A VIP loyalty card entitling you to a FREE cup/pot of tea every time you visit us at a G&P Tea House. Valid for 1 year.
We will bring our iconic Citroen van to your event & serve tea for up to 200 people (dependent on availability, limited to within 60 miles of London)
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