Tea Time, since its inception in 2016, has become the largest and fastest-growing tea franchise business brand in India. The company has successfully spread its wings across India. Its mission is to make the tea franchise business convenient and accessible to all despite differences in backgrounds and it all started with a thought of Uday Srinivas Tangella.
Before the entrepreneurial venture Uday, the founder of Tea Time, worked in Dubai. During his stay in Dubai, he explored and visited several beverage brands and observed and understood the quality gap in beverages. As he dived deeper into the tea business sector he saw the difference in the pricing strategy of the same product. A good quality cup of tea is out of reach for many people and Uday wanted to change this.
Despite India’s love for tea, Uday found that the majority of people were deprived of consuming a good cup of tea, and the pricing discrepancy was the culprit. Moreover, he saw that the lower end of the tea industry was mainly unorganized and a change initiative could transform the market for the better. It could provide a scope for the common Indian people to acquire empowerment through the tea business. Uday saw the problem of the price gap as well as the entrepreneurial opportunity in India’s tea business sector. He wanted to transform the tea business sector and empower his fellow Indian people and this encouraged him to take the leap of faith to start Tea Time.
Following completion of graduation in electronics and communications engineering from TRR Engineering College in 2006, Uday worked in various software companies and gained work experience. He worked in Dubai and enjoyed a lavish lifestyle. However, as a visionary and ambitious individual, he wanted to build something that would value to him as well as to society. This perception prompted him to quit his job and return to his roots in India.
With new zeal and passion, Uday started his Tea Time dream with a small humble tea shop in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh in 2016. Everybody was against the idea, people questioned and doubted his ambition, and only his wife supported him. He was clear and determined about his goal to make tea for all and that was how the journey of Tea Time began.
Uday had little experience in business but he had an ambition and his will to do something was strong. Instead of spending time on the ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’, he decided to jump straight into the action. He started the journey with market research. He started observing and learning the market trends, resources, and factors involved in producing a cup of quality tea. He went to high-end brands as well as normal roadside tea stalls, tasted and evaluated the taste along with the pricing strategy. He observed a huge difference between cost and product quality and realized that the problem was apparent throughout the tea market. After coming to India he became certain about the problem of the gap between cost and quality and decided to connect and bridge the two factors.
Uday also realized that the high-end brands with premium quality beverage products only focused on the high-income or at best middle high-income groups. The brands completely overlooked the middle and low-income groups and the difference was prevalent throughout the Indian market. He wanted to know the actual reason leading to the gap and researched deeper. He found that factors like shop decoration and the presence of middlemen in the tea supply chain affected the price and quality difference. Moreover, the limited availability of quality tea leaves was another major reason for increasing the tea cost. The best premium tea leaves were exported to foreign markets. The second best quality tea leaves were sold at a high price range making it impossible for normal people to consume. Along with this, the presence of middlemen between the farmers and shops was always a major reason affecting the product cost.
Uday realized that the problem required an extensive solution. He decided to connect with the government and establish a direct connection with farmers. The thought prompted him to act accordingly, and he built a partnership connection with a group of farmers in Assam. Thus, Tea Time started procuring tea directly from the tea gardens of Assam with zero middlemen in between. It helped to collect quality tea leaves at a low cost. The farmers started getting a fair share for their tea production and the company was able to produce quality tea without exorbitant cost. Uday with his farsightedness understood the requirement for a strong supply chain. He built a supply chain and made Tea Time a self-dependent business. This meant that the company would not be dependent on third parties for product supply or distribution. Less chance of hands also meant the taste of collected tea would remain intact.
Initially, Tea Time was a mere stall without any office. With Uday and his employees’ efforts, the name became a company. As people came to know about the company, their interest as well as their queries increased in the brand. He worked round the clock responding to people’s inquiries. Many people wanted to invest in the dream of the tea business and asked for the tea franchise. The demand for tea franchise business prompted Uday to employ a franchise business model in the entrepreneurial venture. Moreover, with expansion, monitoring the business became difficult and it affected the business, this also prompted Uday to use the franchise business strategy to ensure appropriate business operations that in turn helped to make the product quality of all outlets consistent.
Tea Time did not have any office till it created 200 outlets in 2018. Following the first milestone, the company got its first office in Hyderabad. Tea Time has come a long way from the time it started. It has become a reputed tea business brand. At present, the brand has more than 3500 outlets across India and is still growing. It is doing business in Hyderabad, Pune, Orissa, Bangalore, Haryana, Bihar, and many other places. The company employs a tea franchise business model to expand the business.
It is quite an achievement when you think about the brand’s initial stage. Uday started to walk towards the vision of closing the gap between quality tea and price with only three employees. At present, the company has more than 70 employees. Apart from the headquarter in Hyderabad, the company has teams in Pune, Bangalore, Haryana, and so on. The warehouses ensure that necessary materials are distributed to the franchisees on time.
The company has built a strong community of franchisees and is on a mission to make the tea business convenient and accessible to all irrespective of background. Tea Time works for Telangana Tourism and Andhra Tourism and works with TSRTC (Telangana State Road Transport Corporation). TSRTC is responsible for managing the bus transport services of Telangana. Tea Time believes in working with people and providing the opportunity for empowerment. Hence, instead of employing the central authority business strategy, the company upholds the franchise business model. Uday’s insightful business model is one of the main reasons the company has succeeded in gaining positive customer perception and trust within a short duration of six years. The brand has developed goodwill for itself that further contributes to the company’s growth and expansion.
Along with unit franchisees (UF), the company boasts of its master franchisees (MF) working in several parts of the country. Vineela of Mahbubnagar, Mouli of Vizag, and Srikant of Khammom are proud to master franchisees.
Along with this, the brand has successfully increased its reliability level based on the chain of supply distribution of materials. Vineela is a young and dynamic entrepreneur who has established her identity with the Tea Time franchise business. She always wanted to be an entrepreneur but society and her parents wanted to make her do otherwise. She was confident about herself, she just wanted a platform and assistance that could lend her the wings to fly and turn her entrepreneurial dream into reality. Mouli is another master franchisee who is a valuable member of the Tea Time franchise business. Mouli is a capable businessman. He has helped many others to set up and start Tea Time’s tea franchise business across Vizag and the success is consistent. The company helped and guided Mouli, this has enabled Mouli to become an efficient master franchisee of the company. He ensures that the company’s business optimization leads to optimum results. Mouli’s story inspired many to become Tea Time business franchisees. Srikant of Khammam always wanted to run his own business. However, he wanted initial assistance and that was when he came across Tea Time’s franchise business. The first step was unnerving yet he took the step. At present, more than 3000 people are working for him.
Uday with his willpower and insight stirred the change and encouraged others with a similar entrepreneurial passion to work with Tea Time and build the franchise business together. Many Tea Time franchisees invested in the franchise business after listening to the history of the company’s journey.
Uday Srinivas Tangella’s journey shows that a person with a solid passion and clear direction can truly build the castle of dreams.
Author Bio:
My name, Sharmistha Jatua. I have been a content writer for 6+ years. Currently, I am the writer of Tea Time. Previously I worked in Write Ignite Pvt. Ltd and Elite Research and Analysis as a content writer. Academic, blogging and SEO writing are my fields of experience. Long or short forms of writing, I enjoy both. My passion is to find creativity from everyday life.
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