Leaving a job as a senior tea executive in McLeod Russel to becoming an entrepreneur, the journey is never an easy one. But Ranjit Baruah, founder director of Aromica Tea, who has a degree in hotel management too, has remained undaunted by the challenges and has today brought out 46 blends in four years' time. Baruah, who became famous for Zelensky tea, has just launched the Cheetah tea brand after the Cheetah news hogged international headlines. "There is tremendous competition in the market and a whole range of teas by different companies are introduced every day. We look to events, stories or personalities that may inspire a product launch" Ranjit Baruah Founder Director of Aromica Tea tells BusinessNortheast.
Q. How has been the journey of leaving a career in tea to becoming an entrepreneur?
A. It was a difficult decision to shift base from a tea garden having worked as a tea planter for more than 20 years to become an entrepreneur. The business field was totally new for me as I am a first-generation entrepreneur. However, the journey has been fascinating and rewarding and provides great self-satisfaction.
Q. Lots of promotions are done on Assam tea the world over. Has it helped Assam tea in its image of being one of the best teas in the world?
A. Assam Tea has a name worldwide for its taste, flavour and its unique characteristic. However, we feel there is a lack of promotions and venturing into new market segments. There is a gap in product diversification based on Assam Teas. This sector holds a big promise and Assam Tea may be able to increase its sales all over the world by adding value to the existing product. We have identified this latent potential and have been working on Value addition to various Assam Teas.
Q. Tea is a wellness beverage. What has Aromica done to promote tea as a wellness beverage?
A. Using the age-old knowledge of various ingredients and combining it with tea in a modern scientific way, we have placed our products as wellness beverages based on teas. In pursuit of creating these blends, we have focused on different herbs, spices, flowers and fruits which are mostly found in this part of the Eastern Himalayas and combined with different types of teas such as Black tea, Green tea, Oolong, white tea etc. The basic idea is to come out with a product which promotes health and at the same time provides a good tea drinking experience.
The concept of wellness teas has been trending and more so post Covid people are looking for options for healthy beverages. Tea-based health beverages fit in perfectly due to their affordability, availability and popularity. The market potential is huge and in India itself, the health beverage sector is a 3600 crore market.
Q. You have brought around 40 tea blends to the market. How did you do it?
A. Health benefits, food combination, and product development needs enormous reading and I refer to many journals and books by experts in these fields. This helps me in creating various infusions and blends.
Q. You source a lot of teas from small tea growers. What has been the inspiration behind it?
A. We strongly believe that one cannot grow alone but need a complete value chain and many stakeholders to maintain a business venture. Our small tea farmers lack a regular market and face stiff competition regarding the price of their products. We have tried to lend a helping hand to these small marginalized farmers by procuring the teas from them and giving them a remunerative price. This also helps us maintain a regular supply chain, and control over the quality of the product as these teas are made in small batches. As most of these teas are produced using organic farming, it adds additional value to the end product.
Q. You are now sending a lot of teas to various destinations across the world. How has it been received and do you get repeat orders?
A. We started with establishing a foothold in the export market through recommendation and finally culminating in a deal with a company from Australia after product testing. For our Japanese client, again it was through word of mouth. Now we are happy to send our teas to Switzerland, Georgia, Canada, the USA, and Lithuania. Also, negotiations are in the advanced stage for the launch of our teas in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, France and Germany. I hope this will help our Assam Teas to find a bigger market and capture the imagination and appeal to different people across different continents. Assam wellness teas can open up a bigger window of sales and revenue generation which will help the industry and the producers in a greater aspect.
Q. You have brought out teas after Zelenskyy and now after Cheetah. This means you are fast enough to know what's the mood in the market. Kindly tell us how did you did it?
A. There is tremendous competition in the market and a whole range of teas by different companies are introduced every day. We look to events, stories or personalities that may inspire a product launch. Inspired by the fighting spirit of President Volodymyr Zelensky we launched a strong Assam Tea blend where we tried to draw an analogy of the strength and strong character of President Zelensky and our Assam Tea. There have been recently a lot of debates and discussions across the nation regarding the Cheetahs acquired from Namibia. We launched the Cheetah brand with a tagline Really TEZ – as fast as a Cheetah in regards to taste, attaining colour when brewed and can appeal to people fast. We also launched the SWARNA PANAM – the gold tea on the occasion of International Tea Day which is a special blend of Assam orthodox and 24-carat edible gold procured from France.
Story attracts customers.
We try to create a story behind our every tea. Our speciality tea like Blue Tea and Fiery Bhut Jolokia Tea, Rudraksha tea, and Bamboo shoot tea are some of the blends that have been liked by people. Also, the Braille-friendly tea packets which have got contents and details of the tea in Braille language in the tea packets were also welcomed by the customers. This was to provide inclusivity to visually challenged people and offer them a choice.
Q. You have a cafe called Just Tea. How has been the response so far?
A. There was a challenge in appealing to the customers when we launched our teas as these blends were new. So we started a café- Just Tea where we offered our customers a live experience of tasting the various teas. We offered 60 different types of teas. Also, we are promoting the traditional tea drinking experience by offering tea in the Assamese traditional way.
Q. Low rate of consumption of tea is the biggest factor which is pulling down the tea business. How can it be reversed?
A. We believe that continuous growth needs a continuous input of ideas and variety. Our effort continues in this aspect and towards achieving this goal, various R & D is under process to develop new blends, new products, and innovative packaging. At the end of the day, a consumer will look for value for money and we put an effort to achieve this.
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