All the tea in China?

SALES & MARKETING: The recession has been hard on producers and suppliers of most luxury goods. Gourmet teas, however, seem to be the exception.

“Demand for quality products has remained strong,” says Mark Daley, chief executive of Dean & DeLuca , a gourmet food chain based in the US. “People are enjoying more time together, more time sharing with friends, more time [at] home entertaining,” Daley told the International Herald Tribune.

The French tea merchant Mariage Frères , which will open two new boutiques in Hamburg and Munich at the end of 2009, plans to expand to London in 2010. Further expansion to New York and China is to follow.

"We believe we're creating a new category: luxury tea," says Manoj Murjani.

Company director Philippe Cohen-Tanugi says the firm has been approached to develop a franchise operation. “Believe me, so many have called us for that we could have opened a store a month and become a ‘Tea Starbucks,” Cohen-Tanugi said. “But our rules of management have remained unaltered since 1983: complete integration and central decision making in order to keep full control on the Mariage Frères image and identity.”

Meanwhile, TWG Tea of Singapore is a new player on the scene. After just two years in business, TWG is selling its merchandise internationally, and has a contract to provide gourmet teas for Singapore Airlines’ first-class passengers.

The company’s chairman, Manoj Murjani, started the Tommy Hilfiger brand in 1985. “When we launched Tommy Hilfiger, you already had well-established brands like Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, but we felt there was an opportunity in the market to bridge a gap between weekend polo shirt and work shirt,” Murjani explains. “For tea, it’s the same. We’re not the first, but we believe we’re creating a new category: not just gourmet tea but luxury tea.”