Applications open for Tea Tycoons

Questex, organiser of the World Tea Expo, has launched a ‘Tea Tycoons’, a new programme to celebrate and honour emerging small businesses producing innovative products for the global tea industry.

Three winners will be declared for categories that include:

• Innovation (dynamic, new idea, method, or device that demonstrates clear value for tea industry);
• Green/Sustainability (focuses on meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs);
• Unique Customer Engagement (the company creates a fresh approach to client relationship with its customer base to foster brand loyalty and awareness).

To qualify as a Tea Tycoon, companies must:

• Be a new business, brand, product or innovation related;
• Have less than two years in business;
• Employ less than 10 employees;
• Cannot be owned or funded by a large corporation;
• Must not have exhibited previously at the World Tea Expo.

All stage 1 submissions must be entered by 15 January 2021 at 11:59PM EST.  
Questex has detailed that this will be a three-stage process:

• Stage 1 – Submit a written application – reviewed by World Tea team.
  • 27 applications will be selected for stage 2
• Stage 2 – If selected, companies will be notified by 29 January 2021 to submit a video no longer than two minutes about the new company/brand/product/innovation.
  • Nine finalists will be chosen to present to the judges on 15 March to compete for three winner’s prizes. The deadline to submit the video is 12 February 2021.
• Stage 3 – Three winners will be chosen by World Tea judges and announced on 15 March 2021 during the Tea Tycoons Session, part of the World Tea Virtual Summit: Strategies for Success.

To apply for the Tea Tycoons programme, click here.