Apeejay Surrendra In Net Foray With Teastall.Com

The Apeejay Surrendra Tea Group, currently the third largest tea group in India, consisting of three companies, AFT Industries Ltd, Empire Plantations (India) Ltd and Singlo (India) Tea Company is exploring the option of merging the companies.

Though the idea of a merger had been discarded earlier as an unviable option, it is now being given a serious thought.

With the formal launch of teastall.com, one of the first business-to-consumer (B2C) online tea boutique, the group made a foray into the web world.

The group has plans of launching a couple of portals in the next two months.

Karan Paul, director, Apeejay Surrendra Group said, "Our strength lies in finance, books and tea and we will work on those lines." However, sources say that there are no immediate plans of spinning the online activities into a separate company.

 

"We will invest around Rs 20 crore in our online activities this year" said Paul. The online tea mart uses a state-of-the-art package known as Intershop, which makes the site fast and easy-to-use teastall.com, has also roped in PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for structuring the site and technical advice.

Paul said, "We aim to become the largest online tea shop in the world by being a one stop-shop carrying over a 100 different types of tea from tea growing countries all over the world."

The section on tea catalogue gives a list of tea gardens and the kind of tea available for the customer to choose from.

The section on blends further provides the customer with information on the blends that are available such as Darjeeling First Flush, Darjeeling Second Flush.

Speciality teas are also available on the site such as Green Tea, Green Tea with Mixed Herbs, Woman Power Tea as well as Organic Darjeeling Tea that are cultivated with consideration towards ecological balance.

The Group plans to invest in and explore the needs of the modern tea consumer. Plans for the production of instant, decaffeinated and organic tea are in the pipeline.

Apeejay also has plans of fresh garden acquisitions but Paul refused to divulge any further.