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Business Plan for 1999
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Honest Tea, a bottled iced tea company, has completed a strong summer of sales in the
mid-Atlantic region and is now raising capital to fund the brand’s expansion across the
United States as well as overseas. Since the all-natural tea first hit the mid-Atlantic
market in June of 1998, Honest Tea has developed a loyal following of customers who
have made the product the best-selling tea in its largest account, Fresh Fields/Whole Food
Markets, significantly outselling Snapple and the Whole Foods 365 brand. In addition to
success in retail channels, Honest Tea has also been warmly received in food service
channels.
Unlike the sweetened tea drinks made from concentrate or powder which currently
dominate the $2 billion bottled tea market, Honest Tea is brewed with loose leaf tea and
then barely sweetened with pure cane sugar or honey. The product is poised to take
advantage of the rapid growth in the bottled tea, bottled water, and natural food markets,
as well as the developing “tea culture” in the United States. It also has potential to tap into
the large market of health-conscious diet soda drinkers. The target audience is an
emerging subset of the population, which seeks out authentic products and is attuned to
global and environmental issues.