BY VICTOR ADAR
For Fahim Ahmed, opportunities abound with tea. Launching attitude teas in end of October, the Managing Director for Gold Crown Beverages (Kenya) Limited knew one thing – tea is not only for the old but also for an ignored generation, the Millenials. And the push to entice a young clientele with flavoured tea is what is currently at the bottom of his heart.
Mr Ahmed’s out of the box type of thinking is what birthed 11 Attitude Teas, themed variants of teas spotting exciting colours, flavours and aroma with addition of different herbs.
“It was born out of a need to bring in young people. With these teas, we have not only created a product for the Millennials but also made it appealing to the young in appearance, attitude, taste profile and creativity, in order to encourage them to consume tea which is also known for its benefits,” he says.
It took 19 months from the day the conversation started to ensure that all the new flavours hit the market. The total amount of money spent on research and development alone to make things happen was Sh30 million. The big step, though, was coming up with the final product. Thus getting opinion from the people involved sending tea experts to Bungoma, Kisumu, Garissa, Malindi, Lodwar, Nakuru… Within a few months, the teas are flying off the shelves.
“You must have a session all over the country because the whole country is your market. Taste for tea in Mombasa may be different from Kisumu, because in Mombasa they like ginger, in Kisumu they don’t. In Kakamega it maybe different… so every region has its own taste and you have to make sure it is something that is going to be received well. So it requires intensive research,” says Ahmed.
Although he studied accounts, he found it easy working for the family business, and it seems to work after all. Gold Crown had just one brand but now it boasts of hundreds of brands born out of ideas that seemed plainly flawed at the beginning. You can imagine how people Mr Ahmed first talked to thought he was crazy as “we walked with those brands across the country.”
Under his leadership, the Gold Crown Beverages has remained robust with increased average monthly turnover of Sh35 million against average turnover of Sh10 million in earlier years. In past years, the company has been marketing its own premium brands, Kericho Gold and Baraka Chai, in the quest to keep consumers satisfied and happy.
“It’s a very long journey,” he says. “The products are flying off the shelves and orders are coming from each outlet on a weekly basis and it is a great thing to see that everything that people thought was a crazy idea; ‘it is not going to work’, is now a success. Nobody wanted us, and some kept on asking how all these brands were going to survive. But we can see the results.”
Transition into e-commerce (selling their products through their website), he admits, is also paying off, serving not only local consumers who are scrambling for these teas in Supermarkets across the country but also extending an arm to prospective customers from other continents to grab the opportunity to go online and place an order.
As the Director, he seeks to give players in the coffee industry a run for their money (the whole coffee industry is known to come up with very innovative products like cappuccinos and Lattes) thanks to products that everyone can identify with. That is not the case with tea industry. Thus it is not a surprise that the local tea giant is vying for a piece of the pie a time when a whole generation is saying: “let’s do coffee because tea is boring.” Ahmed aims at enticing the younger lot by speaking the language that they speak.
Although business is brisk, the issue of Value Added Tax is what is proving a challenge, he says. Mr Ahmed, a veteran in the beverage field says that tea is a basic food item for Kenyans, general tea in that matter. He adds that only 10% of total production of their teas is what is consumed in Kenya (they pay taxes on that percentage.)
The other 90%, which is for the export market also pays Value Added Tax but gets refunds from the tax man thanks to their sister company, Gold Crown Foods (EPZ) Limited, a company they mainly helps them on importing duty free packaging materials for their export. It is actually through the Export Processing Zone that they do 100% export to countries outside East Africa such as the United States, Middle East, South Korea and Saudi Arabia. As at last year, the total value of export was under Sh5 billion.
A beguiling vision he has for the two companies – Gold Crown Beverages and Gold Crown Foods – that it is not only the promise of jobs (almost 750 workers are employed between the two companies) but also becoming African biggest producer of tea bags is his dream. Citing tea bags, he says that between the two companies they produce 12 million bags everyday.
“It depends on how well you are organised. Do you have the infrastructure to back the expansion? We have the infrastructure to support this expansion. We’ve got a full team. We have people just doing tasting the whole day, they are just paid to taste,” he says.
