The Tea Spot Moves to New Headquarters
The Tea Spot has moved from Boulder, Colorado to a new facility and headquarters at the Colorado Tech Center in Louisville, Colo. The move to the new 12,800 square foot building represents The Tea Spot’s growth as a B2C and B2B tea company. The previous HQ was 5,600 square feet, and the new location allows more room for additional staff, resources, product supply, and a new tea-packaging machine by Fuso International.
“We outgrew our last space in Boulder’s Gunbarrel neighbourhood in less than three years, both in terms of production and office space, as well as raw materials storage,” says Maria Uspenski, founder and CEO of The Tea Spot and author of Cancer Hates Tea. “The final impetus to move now was the addition of a big, beautiful piece of automated machinery from Japan’s Fuso International, which will be used by The Tea Spot to develop and co-pack custom pyramid tea sachets.”
Uspenski notes, “We had originally planned to locate the new machine at an industry partner’s facility in Colorado, but in the end, and given the timing of our significant growth in 2018, we chose to upgrade our space to accommodate our needs and the new tea sachet machine, as well.”
At any given time, The Tea Spot stores approximately 45,000 pounds of raw tea and herbals, sourced from tea gardens around the world, and another 10,000 pounds of finished/packaged tea products. The company has 20 full-time employees, four seasonal employees, and one remote part-time employee in China. The production and fulfillment team handcrafts tea in small batches, sources raw materials from around the world, coordinates shipping and receiving to and from its facility, and manages inventory and accounting. The Tea Spot’s teas are supplied to a variety of businesses, including restaurants, hotels, spas and retailers.
In addition to creating its own teas and Steepware tools that are available online, The Tea Spot develops private label and co-branded teas and tea wares for businesses and brands. Overall, the company’s core purpose is to promote wellness by empowering people to make tea a part of every day.
“This past year has been an exercise in managing growth and planning for the future,” said Uspenski. “We’ve experienced higher than anticipated growth in our e-commerce retail channel, which is very high-touch in terms of production, fulfillment and customer service. And we’ve had a year of substantial investment for the future in our wholesale and private label/custom channel. As a result, The Tea Spot today is a very different company than it was one year ago. With additional staff, resources and the new HQ, we’re now set-up to handle a larger business volume.”
The Tea Spot, Inc is a leading producer of handcrafted loose-leaf teas. Its vision to modernize the loose-leaf tea experience has held steadfast since the for-profit philanthropic company was founded by Maria Uspenski in 2004, a cancer survivor drawn to the health benefits of leaf tea during her recovery. The company’s model of social entrepreneurship incorporates its mission to foster health and wellness through loose leaf tea with its 10% Pledge. Ten percent of every sale made is donated in-kind to cancer and community wellness programs.
To learn more about The Tea Spot, visit https://theteaspot.com.
