.png)
Thinking about Gen Z, usually the image that comes in our mind is, youngsters sticking to their phones, hooked up to social media, dreaming to become the next influencer and having tons of fans.
22-year-old Vaibhav Jajoo had something else in mind. Vaibhav was an intern at Royal Orchid
Hotel after he graduated from Benguluru-based Presidency College of Hotel Management.
During an interview, Vaibhav said “Here, I did everything. From washing dishes to cleaning rooms. The service industry is extremely dynamic. But I really wanted something more in my life,”
Vaibhav had ideas and he worked on it for around a year before starting his company, Brewed Leaf in August 2020.
“The process took us time because most tea sellers either have their own estates or have been in this business for generations together. This made procuring the raw materials very difficult,” says Vaibhav, Co-founder of Brewed Leaf.
He further adds, “Deciding on the name itself took us 2-3 months and then there was packaging and process to be set in place”.
In their first year of business, Brewed Leaf generated about Rs 15 Lakh in profits. Now the startup is on track of generating Rs 2cr in revenue for FY2021-2022.
Currently the firm has been working with over 250 tea vendors across India and is in the process of adding over 100 vendors in the FY2021-2022. Vaibav says that he want to get teas from all parts of India.
The products of Brewed Leaf is sold through both ecommerce marketplaces like Amazon and
Flipkart and through its own website. The firm claims that their products are being retailed across over 1,000 stores in most cities and toens across West Bengal, Sikkim, Bihar and Jharkhand, Orissa, and North Eastern regions, except Kolkata.
Vaibhav claims that they have a customer repeat rate of over 80 percent, their products are between the range of Rs 150 and Rs 1,500 for 100 grams of tea.
Recently Vaibhav has been working to expand its existing categories with his team of 21
members. They are working on creating Olive Tea- a tea made from Olive leaves- and instant teas, among others.
Vaibhav says, “When we initially started selling online, one of our customers was an importer from the US. They liked our product so much that they gave us more orders. This would also be a focus for us going forward”.
The firm claims that its major growth has been through customer feedbacks and recommendations but for the financial year 2021-2022 they are planning to invest Rs 50-55 lakh in marketing.
The tea market in India is expected to grow by 2.07 percent annually and some people saw this opportunity including Vaibhav and grabbed it without a second thought.