MHD E-COMMERCE
TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF
Leading home-grown tea retailer, T2 Tea, experienced a 120 per cent growth across its digital sales channels in 2019 and as a result needed to rethink its WMS provider. MHD sits down with the technology and logistics team to find out more.
A
ustralian tea retailer, T2 Tea, opened its first store in Fitzroy, Melbourne in 1996. Two years later the tea producer opened its second store in Chadstone, by Christmas that year both stores had sold entirely out of stock, as the company became more and more popular. Before long, the gourmet tea business found itself operating 40 stores across Australia and New Zealand. In September 2013, Unilever acquired the tea producer in a multimillion dollar agreement, with the view to transform the chain into a global business. T2 Tea is now one of the world’s largest tea retailers, with more than 90 stores worldwide, including 60 shops in Australia and New Zealand. The innovative retailer also offers a 26 | MHD MAY 2020
number of additional ways to shop the brand, including via various digital marketplaces, resellers, grocers, cafes and direct to consumer via the global T2 website. According to T2 Tea, it’s in the organisations DNA to do things differently. It was born out of a desire to be unlike anything else and prides itself on being unique and individual. Innovation is a core value of the business, especially when it comes to ensuring that its customers get the very best products in the most timely and convenient way possible. T2 Tea has seen its customers move towards its digital sales channel offerings over the last few months, with the company reporting an increase of up to 120 per cent in 2019. “We’ve seen a massive shift to e-commerce
in the past twelve months and we are expecting this to continue, with a projected 20 per cent year-onyear growth into the future,” Rohan Penman, Global Head of Technology at T2 Tea says. The company runs its logistics and warehouse operation out of Laverton North in Victoria, and from this site it services all of its retail stores in Australia and New Zealand as well as its wholesale, marketplace and e-commerce operations. “We’ve got around 5,000 to 6,000 pallets in our Laverton North site, and approximately 1,400 SKUs. We operate with around 20 to 30 staff at our lower periods and then around 100 plus when we are meeting peak period demands,” Aaron Calleja, Business Analyst at T2 Tea says.
