UK
T2 is the Australian tea company that has been a distinct success in global expansion. Founded in 1986, it was acquired by Unilever in 2013, when its sales were around $60 million. It then operated 40 stores, mostly in Australia. It now is close to 100, including in New York, Singapore, and across the UK.
A November 2017 article summarizes its globalization strategy. This seems a useful general blueprint that captures many of the features of other firms that are expanding into new domestic as well as international markets.
The most salient element is the target market. In common with many of the new upmarket tea boutiques, bars, shops and houses, the goal is to build a new generation of tea lovers rather than serve the existing one. The focus is firmly on the tea experience. T2 highlights four elements of this:
Design-led: striking and original décor, style, furnishings, ambiance; packaging, serving, accessories.
Tactile: a smelling bar at the front where customers can sample a wide range of “now sipping” teas. The equivalent of a sommelier guides them in tasting savoring aromas, and sensing texture and color.
Seeding: T2’s expansion sequence begins by identifying markets where it has an accessible “fan base.” This includes, for example, Australian ex-pats in such cities as Singapore become T2 brand ambassadors. It launches operations through wholesale accounts, e-commerce and presence in department stores before opening its own stores.
Social influencers: This is the most striking aspect of T2’s strategy: reliance on third-party content in marketing, publicity and brand-building. It reports that this produces three times the customer engagement and ROI than use of its own content.
The overall T2 aim is to fuse all these resources to create “the magical immersive tea moment.” The strategy is not a cookbook for success but an interesting general blueprint for the growing pace and creativity in new generation tea service for new generation customers.