Last year proved to be a huge year for us; having our sustainability objectives recognised through B Corporation certification, kindling shared value relationships with our farmers and tracking our supply chain using blockchain technology were just a few of the successes we achieved last year. However, in 2023 Q2 and beyond we’re aiming even higher – here are some things we’re doing this year at English Tea Shop.
New products
As we get started in 2023, we’re excited to announce that we’ll be welcoming in a new range of products into the English Tea Shop family. This year we’ll be introducing a new gin botanical range as well as a cold brew range; we cannot wait to share these new products with you this year, so keep an eye on our channels to stay in the loop.
Supporting our farmers
Since our inception, we have stuck to the path of being a profitable yet purposeful business that puts people first and believe this is a path all businesses should take. Both our farmers and their communities are absolutely vital to our operations and with this in mind we look to put them at the core of everything we do. This year, we’re looking to expand this, taking further efforts to ‘create shared values’ between us and ourselves and local communities.
One key way we’ll be looking to achieve this is through the expansion of farmer development initiatives, particularly through the developing crop localization projects as we have already piloted with hibiscus. On top of aiming to expand the hibiscus project, we’ll also plan to introduce projects of other non-native crops, such as lavender, marigold, peppermint and rosehips. Alongside this, we’ll be continuing our beekeeping programmes among our farmer groups, aiming to build knowledge within local farming communities and help them create their own sustainable businesses for future generations. We’ll further these aims by holding knowledge-sharing sessions with our tea farmers on topics such as organic tea farming.
Sustainability aims
At English Tea Shop we want to help create a world that is both environmentally secure and economically viable for future generations. With this in mind, we put sustainability at the core of our business’s values and will be aiming to expand our sustainability credentials this year.
Packaging is one of the prime causes of pollution worldwide, with non-recyclable plastics and other materials central to environmental degradation. Whilst our packaging credentials have always been strong, we hope to take that to new heights this year by reducing non-recyclable components in our packaging.
We’re also looking to make our production far more efficient. This year, we’ll seek to increase our efficiency through the adoption of a just-in-time production method, in turn allowing us to reduce lead times and improve risk management and productivity.
Quality and certifications
Closely tied to our ethos of sustainability is our desire to improve quality in 2023. This year, we’ll be working towards achieving 0 rejects with regards to contaminants and to reduce our failure costs by 60% based on 2022 figures. In addition, crucially, we’ll be looking to calculate our downstream GHG emissions and will aim to act accordingly to improve our sustainability goals based on these findings.
Marketing and sales
This year we’ll be adapting our product range to suit a wider scope of markets. We’ll be looking to create more customised products, with a particular focus on gifting, that adapts to changing market trends and is tailored to specific holidays throughout the year. To help achieve this, we’ll be holding monthly meetings with our distributors and markets to allow us to closely monitor customer behaviour and provide a richer understanding of market patterns and trends before adapting accordingly.
The year will also see us look to work closer with our distributor markets on promotional campaigns. We will actively collaborate with and support our partners on marketing promotions such as discounts, free products and much more.
2023 looks to be an incredible year for English Tea Shop. From further achieving our sustainability goals, to bringing our customers a sensational new range of products, we couldn’t be more excited about what is to come. Keep an eye out on the blog and our social media pages to stay up to date with what we’ve got in store.
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