Sustainable Tea: Celebrating sustainability at every step

At English Tea Shop, we work closely with everyone in our value chain to make our planet a better place for all living beings. We want to be part of creating a world that’s both environmentally secure and economically prosperous for generations to come. A world where all people are treated fairly and given the chance to grow and develop.

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Our Values

EXCELLENCE

Our passion for excellent-quality organic tea extends to everything we do and everyone we partner with. We work together as a close-knit community, committed to always going the extra mile and supporting each other along the way to bring our best. We use only the finest ingredients that are planted, picked and processed with love so that our tea loving community at home can enjoy delicious organic teas.

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Our Values

JOY & CELEBRATION

To us, the simple joy of a good cup of tea in all its flavourful glory is cause for celebration. As is our wonderful tea loving community around the world who make it all happen. We take joy in bringing tea traditions into the future as a progressive organisation that gives back to its Sri Lankan roots while facing forward. And, we celebrate the wonders Mother Nature has to offer while showing love for the source of all things: our planet.

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Our Values

DOING THE RIGHT THING

We set out to create a profitable but purposeful business that puts people and sustainability first and have always remained true to this aim. Even when it’s challenging, there’s always a way to do the right thing. It’s a choice we believe all organisations should make. By caring about and empowering everyone in our extended community, together we are shaping and evolving the tea world with integrity.

Why organic?

Better for our farmers, our consumers and our planet

Going organic has meant we’ve built direct and long-lasting relationships with our farmers. It has also allowed us to have a positive impact on their lives by paying premium prices, offering long-term contracts and training, plus contributing towards organic certification and equipment costs.

 

We believe we have created a virtuous cycle where everyone involved wins.

 

And, of course, it’s better for the environment!

Download our sustainability report

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Our certifications

All our products comply with regulatory standards. We also embed sustainable practices at every step to have a positive influence on our communities and improve the day-to-day lives of our people.

Environmental impact

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Carbon Neutral
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ISO 14001

Food safety & product excellence

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ISO 22000
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IFS
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BRC
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Organic

Food safety & product excellence

Social empowerment & transparency

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SMETA
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Fairtrade

Social empowerment & transparency

System quality

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ISO 9001
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ISO 27001

Purpose driven from the start

English Tea Shop was set up in 2010 with the heartfelt aim of creating a profitable business with purpose that puts people and sustainability at the centre of things.
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2010

A newcomer to the organic world, we made a decision that changed everything – to move away from the typical shared auction system and work directly with farmers.

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2013

English Tea Shop became established in 23 countries.

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2015

On the road to becoming an employee-owned business, we built Open Book Management and the Great Game of Business philosophy into our corporate culture. 

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2016

Pioneered our unique and innovative ‘Creating Shared Value’ model that focuses on achieving economic, social, and environmental sustainability outcomes.

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2017

Secured our first international award nomination as a finalist in the Grocer Gold awards. Won the National Business Award for sustainability in the UK.

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2018

Brand revamp, received our second Grocer Gold awards nomination, and our CEO was named one of the 50 most ambitious business leaders of 2018 by LDC.

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2019

Launched an agripreneur programme for 40 female farmers. Listed in London Stock Exchange’s 1,000 companies to inspire Britain and Alantra Food & Beverage Fast 50.

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2020

Won the GGOB All-Star Award, Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development. Hosted our CSV global forum. Launched our Employee Share Option Plan and Train the Trainer programme.

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2021

Achieved a global footprint of 48 countries and became 30% employee-owned! Our facilities also attained carbon-neutral certification, a process we started in 2018.

Ethically sourced tea

Beyond organic

We are serious tea lovers, but our ambition goes beyond making organic teas. We believe businesses can help create a better future for all living beings and choose to be at the forefront of this change.

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Prajāva in practice

Three internal and three external pillars guide how we put our core concept of Prajāva into practice. The pillars are interrelated, reflecting the virtuous cycle created by our approach to people, planet and profit.

Our virtuous cycle - internal

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Empower with knowledge

Knowledge gives people the power to change their world, so we continually help our people learn and grow through training.

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Inclusivity through open book management

With a view to becoming a significantly employee-owned business, we are open and transparent with our people on all aspects of business.

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An employee-owned business

Our employees will significantly own English Tea Shop one day, so nowadays they help us define our strategy, vision and objectives.

Prajāva in practice

Three internal and three external pillars guide how we put our core concept of Prajāva into practice. The pillars are interrelated, reflecting the virtuous cycle created by our approach to people, planet and profit.

Our virtuous cycle - external

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Enhanced quality of life for farmers

Organic farming should empower farmers and improve their quality of life, so we offer support to help make this a reality.

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Education and training for farmers and their families

Through education and training, we aim to help farming communities create sustainable businesses for future generations.

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Promote sustainable & profitable organic farming

By offering support with finance, equipment and training, we help generate more profit and encourage farmers to go organic.

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Our Prajāva Philosophy

Love and Prosperity through Community

We believe that the concept of Prajãva – the Sri Lankan word for community – should act as a guiding star for all businesses.

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Our philosophy of Prajãva represents how businesses can work together with their communities in an inspiring way to create a virtuous cycle of shared value.

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As a result, businesses deliver a sustainable competitive advantage to the entire value chain, including the environment.

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Prajãva, therefore, puts organisations in an incredibly strong position to create long-term value in a way that is ethical for customers, employees, and suppliers. This leads to more fruitful community relationships, more sustainable livelihoods, and bridges inequality gaps in wealth and knowledge.

Creating shared value - our governing principle

Unique and innovative, our shared value model focuses on simultaneously achieving economic, social, and environmental sustainability outcomes. To reach these goals, we empower both our supplier communities and our own team of over 300 employees.

 

Conventional wisdom suggests that when businesses place a commitment to sustainability at the heart of operations, they limit their growth potential. This narrow and outdated view is something that English Tea Shop set out to challenge by creating our shared value model.

Learn about creating shared value

Our tea revolution: Impact

Our tea revolution is about creating meaningful change that impacts the lives of everyone in our value chain. We continually strive to find ways to enhance our positive impact on people and the planet.

3012

small-scale farmers work with us directly

46%

of our employees are women
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500

farmers trained in sustainable organic farming

30%

employee owned

Our awards

Over the years, our passion for organic tea and sustainability has earned us the recognition of multiple international award giving bodies.
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Great Game of Business - All-Stars Award 2020
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Queen’s Award for Enterprise – 2020
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National Business Award for sustainability -2017
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CEO was named one of the 50 most ambitious business leaders of 2018 by LDC
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Alantra Food and Beverage Fast 50 - 2018
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Listed in the London Stock Exchange’s 1,000 companies to inspire Britain -2019
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The Grocer Gold Awards - Finalist – 2017/2018

Discover our organic teas

Tea for every mood and moment. Ranging from the traditional to the more exotic, our deliciously varied range of organic teas and tisanes are bursting with flavours for you to explore.

Our organic teas

Get in touch

Do you love organic teas and sustainability as much as we do? We’d love to hear from you if so!

Let’s connect

Our mission

What drives us

Our mission is to create the finest organic teas while having a net positive impact on the planet and the lives of everyone involved from farm to cup.

Brand Book
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