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Tag: TWG Tea

  • KKR invests into lifestyle products

    KKR invests into lifestyle products

    Private Equity firm KKR has taken up a “significant stake” in massage chair and lifestyle products group V3, the owner of the OSIM and TWG Tea brands. KKR’s investment is up to S$500 million in V3, valuing V3 at an enterprise value of about S$1.7 billion. However,  Both parties declined to comment on the exact mix of equity and debt financing. KKR is making the investment from its Asian Fund III. What we know is that the investment by KKR represents more than 50 percent increase in enterprise value compared to when the group was taken private.

    Mr Magnus said: “The luxury lifestyle and wellness industry continues to be a sector of exciting growth in Asia, proliferated by rapidly rising consumer affluence throughout the region.”

    Ron Sim remains the Chairman, Chief Executive and Controlling Shareholder of V3. He said: “I am extremely pleased to welcome KKR as a significant shareholder in V3. I am confident this investment will position the company for our next phase of growth, starting with the immediate expansion of TWG Tea in Japan and the US and of OSIM in China. We would also be looking into M&A opportunities that are earnings accretive.”

    KKR partner Jaka Prasetya said the investment underscores KKR’s strong belief in the continued growth of the region’s consumer sector: “We aim to provide support and capital to successful home-grown, regional companies like V3 in order to capture opportunities across Asia and beyond.”

    Headquartered in Singapore, V3 has a presence in over 100 cities in 26 countries around the world. The largest chunk of V3’s revenue comes from sales of OSIM massage chairs.

    V3’s annual revenue climbed back above the S$600 million mark last year, reversing the revenue decline owing to store closures in China in prior years. Profit also rose, Mr Sim said.

    The luxury lifestyle and wellness industry continues to be a sector of exciting growth in Asia, proliferated by rapidly rising consumer affluence throughout the region.

  • KKR to acquire significant stake in V3, TWG Tea

    KKR to acquire significant stake in V3, TWG Tea

    Private equity company KKR is to invest as much as S$500 million (US$366 million) into V3, the parent of cafe chain TWG Tea and massage chair retailer Osim, to fund regional expansion. In a deal which mixes equity and financing, KKR will take an unspecified “significant stake” in V3, which is effectively valued at S$1.7 billion. V3 is the company which resulted from last year’s restructuring of once-listed Osim International after plans for an IPO were shelved.

    Keith Magnus, chairman of Evercore Asia, which advised V3 on the deal said that the investment by KKR represents a more than 50 per cent increase in enterprise value compared to when the group was taken private.

    “This is a phenomenal premium for [Ron] Sim,” said Magnus.

    Sim remains the chairman, chief executive and controlling shareholder of V3. Sim, who remains chairman, CEO and controlling shareholder of the business added in a statement: “I am extremely pleased to welcome KKR as a significant shareholder in V3. I am confident this investment will position the company for our next phase of growth, starting with the immediate expansion of TWG Tea in Japan and the US and of Osim in China.

    “We would also be looking into M&A opportunities that are earnings accretive.”

    V3 also owns the rights to retail GNC nutritional supplements in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan.

    Sim says V3’s revenue cleared S$600 million last year and profit was also up.

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  • New TWG Tea Leicester Square Boutique has more than 800 teas

    New TWG Tea Leicester Square Boutique has more than 800 teas

    TWG Tea has launched a London flagship in Leicester Square.

    Inside, the TWG flagship are tables laden with colourful cannisters of the company’s teas, including London Breakfast, Paris Breakfast (with candied spices), Russian Breakfast (Georgian smoky tea with bergamot); afternoon and evening blends like the Orient Express (black tea with wild berries) or Longevity tea, with white leaves; fun blends such as Silver Moon (green tea with berry and vanilla), Emerald River (green with Burma fruits) and the White House (with fruits and roses).

    There are also teas for the connoisseur: the rare first-flush and the white Darjeelings, Chinese Yellow teas, once a drink for emperors, the white Yin Zhen, and blue tea. Prices range up to £1300 for 100g. All up, there are about 800 teas in this branch. In the company’s other, smaller new shop on Brompton Road, opposite Harrods, there are 600.

    Tea can be imbibed from breakfast through to dinner in the tea-salon-cum-restaurant upstairs. This is a grand Chinese room, with tea-leaf shapes on the ceiling and red lacquer panelling. At the back, there is a museum of tea artefacts, from Russian samovars to old dragon-wreathed Chinese teapots and chests.

    As well as teas there are tea-flavoured biscuits and patisserie and ice cream. “We don’t want it just to be about afternoon tea,” says TWG co-founder Maranda Barnes. “We want it to be for every time of day, for everything you do. I was 18 before I started drinking tea. I have it with my girlfriends when I want to unwind, when I want to celebrate, when I want to get myself going. I want everyone to feel that there’s a tea for them. I don’t want it to be stuffy and intimidating.”

    Waiters recommend teas to go with the food, but there is also tea in the food … macha salt on the French fries, Sencha tea and popped rice on the butter and tea leaves in the bread, macha beurre blanc in the Norwegian salmon sauce and the Sakura! Sakura! Tea in the sorbet that goes with the Bain de Rose dessert.

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  • TWG Tea celebrates with new e-commerce platform

    TWG Tea celebrates with new e-commerce platform

    To mark its 10th anniversary, TWG Tea has launched a global e-commerce website, with Singapore being the first nation to experience it (the company is based in Singapore).

    With a refurbished interface, the site now offers a suite of tools, such as a customised gifting guide and an interactive tea connoisseur service, which recommends a customer’s perfect tea based on a fun quiz.

    There is also richer content so consumers can learn about the brand’s harvests, handcrafted blends, tea merchandise and edible treats.

    With the consumer in mind, the reboot aims to complement and mirror the in-store experience.

    The brand also introduces a premium by-invitation-only membership, “MyTWG”, which offers tea-related rewards and benefits.

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  • T2 Singapore launches with kaya toast brew

    T2 Singapore launches with kaya toast brew

    For its first outlet in Asia, Australian tea chain T2 Singapore has launched with a new brew that pays homage to local breakfast staple kaya toast.

    Its Singapore Breakfast tea is a blend of pu’er (Chinese fermented tea), green tea, coconut flakes and roasted rice. It is among more than 150 types of teas at the new store, in the 313@Somerset mall.

    T2 CEO Nicky Sparshott says Singapore was picked for the company’s Asian debut because of its “strong tea-drinking culture with multicultural influences, from black tea dating back to the colonial period to Asian tea beverages such as teh tarik – Malay for pulled tea – and green tea”.

    Covering 550 sqft (51 sqm), the store offers myriad teas, from black, green and white to rooibos, and herbal and fruit-based tisanes.

    Bestsellers for the company include French Earl Grey, which has bergamot-infused black tea perfumed with rose and sunflower petals and hibiscus; Green Rose, green tea paired with mango, papaya and rose petals; and Fruitalicious tisane, a blend of cranberries, blueberries, dragon fruit and goji berries.

    t2-tea-c

    Singapore has been among T2’s top five markets in online sales over the past two years, and Sparshott hopes the country’s reputation as a tourism hub can expose the tea company to visitors in Asia.

    “Infinite possibilities”

    “Tea has moved from being a beverage for old people to having infinite possibilities … there is an appetite for new invention in teas,” she says.

    Like its more than 75 outlets in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US, the T2 shop in Singapore has black floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with brightly coloured tea boxes, tea pots, cups and accessories. Taking centre stage is an island brew bar with tea-making apparatus, where six types of hot and iced tea beverages are brewed daily for customers to sample.

    Sparshott says customers can also attend regular tea masterclasses and tea-blending sessions through the tea community group T2 Society, which is free to join.

    She says T2 intends to open another three or four outlets in Singapore in the coming year.

    Started in Melbourne in 1996, T2 was acquired by Unilever in 2013, which owns such tea brands as Lipton.

    Other tea boutiques in Singapore include the TWG Tea chain and The 1872 Clipper Tea Company, which opened a tea retail shop-cum-bar in Ion Orchard last April.

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  • TWG Tea makes debut in Canada

    TWG Tea makes debut in Canada

    Singaporean brand TWG Tea has entered the North American market with a store in Vancouver.

    In its eight years, TWG Tea has opened 56 owned and franchised boutiques and salons in 17 cities including Dubai, London and Shanghai.

    In Canada, its franchise and distribution rights have been bought by Tom and Karinna James, who previously owned Urban Tea Merchants in Vancouver. The city is ideal for TWG’s North American debut because of its tea culture, large Asian population and local appreciation for niche and artisanal beverages.

    “Our Asian population are very sophisticated tea drinkers,” says Tom James, thanks to the introduction of tea concepts such as Davids Tea and Starbucks’ Teavana.

    Tea sales in Canada reached $1.3 billion last year, with 40 per cent growth by 2020 predicted.

    Tom and Karinna James opened luxury tea house Urban Tea Merchant in 2004. The shop has been closed and will reopen as TWG next month with a boutique, salon and small wholesale component focussing on hotels and gourmet stores.

    Tea will be served in 18-carat gold-plated teapots, says James, who plans to open several stores in Canada.

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