91探花

Bird听&听Blend听Tea听Co. is an independent, award-winning听tea听company on a mission to reimagine the Great British brew. After years of working in the听tea听industry, I, alongside my business partner Mike, decided to exploit our passion for听tea听to create our own innovative, top-quality听blends.听

We started the business in one of our parents bedrooms, packing听tea听and attending markets to sell our听tea听creations. Building the brand from scratch, we now have a growing听team and a thriving online store, employing 125+ staff across 13 stores and an ecommerce platform.

Bird听&听Blend听offers the听country鈥檚 largest range of creative听blends, using a wide range of ingredients including herbs, flowers, fruits, caramels, and chocolate.听 As well as the online based business, our shops are based in Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Manchester, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Tunbridge Wells, Worthing and London sites: Angel, Borough and Portobello.听 We also attend festivals and run educational听Tea听Mixology workshops.

We genuinely love what we do!

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How did you听come up with the idea for the听company?

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Mike & I were working as ski instructors in Canada and we听didn鈥檛 want to听come back to the听UK and听return to 9-5 jobs working for someone else so we decided to听create our own business with our own rules and with a mission to be as ethical and eco听conscious as we听could. I had a background in the听tea听industry so we decided to take that and run with it to challenge the UK听tea听industry by creating fun and imaginative听blends.

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How has the听company evolved during the pandemic?

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The last year has been challenging for us and the pandemic certainly changed many things for the business.听听Bird听&听Blend听has always been, first and foremost a bricks and mortar retail business; we believe in the importance of local听communities, the high street and people-led experiences and so the temporary closures of our stores during the lockdown months represented a challenge for us financially, for our听teams & for our customers.听

However, we acknowledge that听consumer behaviours are changing, with a clear shift towards digital & on-demand. Over the last 12 months we have seen a 230% increase in sessions to our website, due to our loyal fan base stocking up online during lockdown, but also new customers looking for online replacements for their usual routines. This change represented an opportunity for our business but meant we had to quickly accelerate our digital offering & operations to听continue providing exceptional service to our growing, digital customer base.

Through our strong听team we were able to make changes including the restructure of our warehouse & the introduction of shift working to ensure social distancing and the safety of back of house听teams.

We are bucking trends and thriving on the high street with 4 new stores opening since lockdown last year, a new website and new warehouse in Worthing.

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What can we hope to see from听Bird听&听Blend听Tea听Co. in the future?

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Over the next three years, our business objectives are focused on the business鈥檚 mission to spread happiness & reimagine听tea, we are听committed to growing our business in a financially stable, sustainable way that is in line with our values. Our objectives include:

• Reaching new audiences while听continuing to surprise & delight our current customers
• Investing in local听communities & our high streets by opening 4 new stores a year, rolling out further across the UK听
• Championing & partnering with other small businesses to support independent creators听
• Initiatives around sustainability & ethics to become the most impactful听tea听company in the world, looking at supply chain, production methods, packaging and processes.听
• Growing a听team of fulfilled, supported & happy听team members with a focus on employee wellbeing, progression and knowledge-sharing
• Continuing to lead the way in听tea听innovation by creating exciting new听tea听blends, matcha flavours and other products that challenge the status quo and bring magical moments to everyday life.