Kiwi entrepreneurs launch award-winning 'Supertea' range into the world's most competitive market

Iced tea is an international success story. In the US last year, sales of tea and bottled tea reached an estimated $6.7 billion, with Mintel predicting the category will grow by 18% over the next five years. A homegrown New Zealand brand, Ti Tonics, is now poised to take on the highly competitive North American market.

Ti Tonics founder Dr Tracey King has never been one to shy away from a challenge. She was a competitive tennis player in the United States, before gaining a PhD in Health Psychology and becoming an academic psychologist specialising in health and mind/body medicine. Coming home to New Zealand, she saw that the local iced tea market was significantly underdeveloped - but with enormous potential.

Ti Tonics launched in 2011, and rapidly signed up quality distributors throughout Australasia. They’ve already won several major industry awards, including Best Tea-Based Beverage and Supreme Beverage at this year's New Zealand Juice and Beverage Association Awards.

The new deals with three premium beverage distributors will give Ti Tonics access to more than 10,000 outlets throughout California. The range will be stocked in high-end independent cafés and delis, including the iconic Dogtown, Urth and Mrs Winstons.

“In the US, refrigerated teas are experiencing 9% annual growth, which is propelling the whole sector,” explains King. “Consumers are becoming increasingly health conscious, and moving away from carbonated beverages.”

Ti Tonics taps into this growing consumer demand for ‘wellness’ by providing a vastly more potent dose of antioxidants than regular iced teas. A major innovation is their use of new natural sweeteners, instead of the conventional concentrated apple juice. As a result, Ti Tonics teas have exceptionally low levels of sugar – less than 2% versus 7 - 8% in most other bottled teas. And, of course, their fruit-infused flavours taste delicious.

“We doubled our revenue in the last financial year, and our US market expansion should ensure we double turnover again within the next 12 months,” says King. “Ultimately, we aim to be selling in excess of 200,000 cases of Ti Tonics a year. Our business goal is, quite simply, to see our product everywhere. What’s the point of creating a great product if you’re not accessible to everyone?”

The Ti Tonics range is available in New Zealand from Countdown, Nosh, selected New World supermarkets, cafés and specialty stores.