Teavana

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Teavana Corporation
Subsidiary
Industry Restaurants
Retail Tea
Founded In 1997 at Phipps Plaza in Atlanta, Georgia.
Headquarters 2987 Clairmont Road NE, Suite 300, Atlanta, Georgia 30329, United States
Products Loose-Leaf Tea
Made-to-order tea beverages
Tea-Related Products
Number of employees
5000+
Parent Starbucks
Slogan A Heaven of Tea
Website Teavana.com

Teavana is a specialty tea and tea accessory retailer based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company has over 400+ locations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the Middle East.[1] On December 31, 2012, Starbucks acquired Teavana estimated around $620 million.[2]

History

The New York Stock Exchange on July 28, 2011, when Teavana had its Initial Public Offering, which raised roughly $121 million.

Teavana was started in Atlanta, Georgia in 1997, with the opening of the first teahouse at Lenox Square. The husband and wife team that created Teavana invested their life savings into the teahouse concept after traveling abroad, noticing the gravitation of Americans towards fine wines and coffees in the United States.[3]

In late 2012 Starbucks stated it would be paying $620 million in cash to buy Teavana Holdings Inc.[4] Three class-action lawsuits were commenced by shareholders of Teavana concerning the Starbucks buyout; these were settled on December 14, 2012 (subject to court approval).[5] The acquisition of Teavana by Starbucks was formally closed on December 31, 2012.[6][7]

Products

Tea types

Teavana offers teas and herbal infusions, with categories such as: white, green, flavored & scented green, "blooming" white, black, flavored & scented black, oolong, and pu-erh teas along with rooibos, herbal, and Yerba Maté infusions. Teavana retail stores generally offer various blends of each type of tea, and consistently promote cross blending different types of tea.[8]

In April 2014, Starbucks and Teavana collaborated with Oprah Winfrey to develop a tea called Teavana Oprah Chai Tea, along with additional tea accessories. For every sale of Oprah Chai Tea products, Starbucks will make a donation to the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Foundation Academy which supports youth education. Starbucks describes the tea as, "a bold infusion of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom and cloves, blended with loose-leaf black tea and rooibos."[9]

Tea products

In addition to tea, Teavana sells tea products, including cast iron Tetsubin teapots, Bone China teapots, Japanese porcelain teapots and cups, stove-top kettles, electric kettles, milk frothers and automatic tea makers (produced by Australian company Breville), Japanese hot water dispensers and electric tea makers (produced by Zojirushi), tea measures, tea infusion and steeping wares, honey, world music, and Asian books. Teavana also markets rock sugar sourced from Germany.

Blooming Teas

Blooming teas are an extremely popular form of tea in which various flowers and plants are hand rolled into specific shapes and placed into the bottom of a glass teapot. When the water is poured over these plants and allowed to steep, the flowers "bloom" by unfurling and showing their true shape. Many blooming teas are tied and rolled in such a way as to be as aesthetically pleasing as possible, usually using a variety of colours and shapes.

Stores

Teavana retail stores are usually located in upscale shopping malls and designed to be "part tea bar, part tea emporium."[10] Individual cups of tea to go are offered for sale, and the retail locations offer free samples of various tea blends and tea varieties at their front door and within the store. Teavana currently has over 355 stores.

File:Teavana Nashville.jpg
Teavana in Nashville, Tennessee

Competitors

Apart from generic tea brands (such as Lipton, Red Rose Tea and Tetley), Teavana's competitors include Art of Tea, Nuovo Tea, Stash Tea Company and Sea at Tea, and DavidsTea.

See also

  • Tazo, another tea brand owned by Starbucks

References

  1. Map of retail locations.
  2. Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. last accessed January 23, 2008. Atlanta.bizjournals.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-13.
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  9. Teavana Oprah chai tea debuts at Starbucks and Teavana stores in the U.S. and Canada. (2014, April 29). Retrieved November 24, 2014, from http://news.starbucks.com/news/teavana-oprah-chai-tea-debuts-at-starbucks-and-teavana-stores-in-the-u.s.-aores-in-the-u.s.-a
  10. last accessed January 23, 2008. Teavana.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-13.

External links