Jennifer Odera passionately describes it as something that brings people together, connecting them across the globe. It is personal, it is cultural, and storytelling revolves around it. It is tea.
However, as a middle-level manager in the hospitality industry working across the Middle East, Europe, and America, she would attend the World Tea Expo every year and to her disappointment, though Kenyan tea featured prominently, it’s story remained largely untold.
“I would check from one stand to another only to find it under a different country or brand. For instance, the world-famous English Breakfast tea includes Kenyan tea but is rarely labeled as such. That didn’t sit well with me,” says Jennifer.
It’s a story as old as Africa’s manufacturing exploits — resources are often exported raw, processed, and rebranded elsewhere.
Jennifer was determined to ensure that value stays within the continent and in 2019 set up her company which has been crafting a unique blend of tea using locally sourced spices, herbs, and florals.
She sources high-quality orthodox tea, hand-processes and blends it with spices to produce signature varieties including green, white, and purple teas.
“We have Nairobi Chai, a masala tea; Babu Chai, a Zanzibar tea fused with cacao and vanilla; and Tonic tea infused with turmeric and ginger—all locally sourced,” explains the founder of T&Co, producer of SIPP Bold Tea.
Charting a growth path
Over the last six years Jennifer has had to take deliberate steps that have slowed the company’s growth, careful not to fall into the financing pitfall that sees a majority of Kenyan start-ups fold within a year of business.
“Banks charge insane rates that can cripple any growing business. Ours is not a legacy business, and venture capitalists tend to focus on tech start-ups,” she says.
To maintain financial stability, she has been growing the business organically, leveraging her extended family network for capital, legal support, and financial audits.
“I see people ruining their credit rating by taking loans at high interests that they cannot sustainably pay. I have to accept that our growth won’t be exactly what I dreamt of, but I’m not giving up. I’ll move to the next stage, stay there for a while, then push forward,” she says.
Early struggles
Quitting a well-paying job to pursue entrepreneurship requires courage, and for Jennifer, the fear of failure was immense. Initially, she dreamed of owning a hospitality establishment, but the financial hurdles proved too steep.
“The tea sector is unpredictable. Consumers will tell you what they want, but along the way, you stumble upon something different that you never foresaw,” she says.
She recalls making over Sh300,000 in a single weekend when she launched her business. However, by March 2020, Covid-19 struck, and sales plummeted to less than Sh15,000 a week.
Running a business also means dealing with external factors, including regulatory changes and unreliable contractors. Her packaging supplier, for example, has changed the packaging design three times, and as a small business player, she has had little control over such disruptions.
“You are trying to plug into someone’s system, and theirs keeps changing. You can never be fully prepared for such things, but you learn,” she says.
Sourcing some ingredients, such as vanilla, was also a challenge. Tanzanian suppliers, for instance, prefer exporting to Europe over selling within the region, further slowing production.
Market strategy and pricing
For T&Co, marketing is primarily digital. Jennifer avoids placing products on supermarket shelves due to the long credit periods retailers impose, which could strain working capital.
“We tried it, but after a few months, we realised we would run out of working capital. Instead, we opted for direct online sales and work with a few select retailers within the city who pay on time,” she says.
Jennifer acknowledges the challenge of affordability. With a 50g bag of her teas selling at Sh350 and a kilo going as high as Sh15,000, reaching lower-income consumers has been difficult.
While the price is a stretch for many Kenyans, high-end consumers consider it low. Jennifer says they are currently reviewing its pricing strategy to cater to both mass-market and premium-tier customers.
Despite the challenges, Jennifer is optimistic. Recent deals with corporate clients and partnerships with select cafés and hotels have bolstered revenue, setting T&Co on a path to greater expansion.
Lessons in the journey
The entrepreneur says her biggest lesson in business is that success requires courage, and success is not always assured. Things may not go according to plans, making it all the more important for one to have the ability to quickly adapt.
In her case, she expected the company to process thousands of kilogrammes of tea within two years but that hasn’t been the case due to financial constraints among other factors.
Secondly, she advises that in manufacturing one strive to be in control of the whole value chain. Relying on third parties for services like packaging can derailed growth plans.
Thirdly, she says there is value in starting business with some degree of naivety.
“Start your business young because that naivety fuels you to do crazy things. Where you start and where you end are two different things, and you won’t learn until you get started,” she advises.
Starting with one employee, (herself), the company has grown to a staff count of eight, all women.
Growth plan
Jennifer envisions selling Kenyan tea across Africa and exporting it to the EU and the US as a fully branded product.
“Our goal remains to put Kenyan tea on the global map under its own identity. We are just getting started,” she says.
