T2 (tea products company)

T2

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Specialty tea retail
Founded	1 July 1996 (1996-07-01) in Melbourne, Australia
Founder	Maryanne Shearer, Jan O'Connor
Headquarters	Melbourne , Australia
Area served	Australia, Singapore, New Zealand
Key people	Maryanne Shearer (Creative Director as of 2015)
Products	Specialty teas and tea blends
Parent	LIPTON Teas and Infusions (owned by CVC Capital Partners since 2022)

T2, formally known as Tea Too, is a specialty tea retailer operating outlets across Australia, Singapore, and New Zealand. Established in Melbourne in 1996, the company was purchased by Unilever in 2013. At the time of acquisition, T2 managed 40 stores worldwide and reported an annual revenue of .

History

Maryanne Shearer and Jan O'Connor co-founded T2 after initially registering a homewares business named Contents Homeware in 1995.

Founding phase

In 1996, O'Connor and Shearer each contributed $50,000 to initiate T2 as equal stakeholders.

Their collaboration faltered after Shearer returned from maternity leave in 2000, resulting in legal conflict and O'Connor’s departure. In October 2001, Bruce Crome, Shearer’s partner, acquired O'Connor’s shares.

Partnership with investors

In 2007, Maryanne Shearer and Bruce Crome sold half of their ownership in T2 to retail investors Jonathan Dan and Phillip Blanco. Following disputes over expansion plans, Shearer and Crome bought back Blanco’s 25% shareholding, while Dan maintained his investment.

Unilever acquisition

Unilever purchased T2 from Shearer and Crome in October 2013. By 2015, Shearer continued as the Creative Director of T2. Shearer highlighted Unilever’s dedication to sustainable farming practices as consistent with T2’s principles. Since 2009, T2 had collaborated with Fairtrade on its English breakfast tea blend. By 2017, some commentators noted that the company had undergone a transformation often described as being "Unilever-ed."

The acquisition cost was reported below $100 million and was later confirmed at $60 million. Baker & McKenzie and Harris Carlson handled legal matters for T2, with Deloitte providing financial advice; Unilever was assisted by Johnson Winter Slattery and KPMG.

In November 2021, Unilever agreed to divest most of its tea portfolio, including T2, selling it to private equity firm CVC Capital Partners for €4.5 billion (approximately US$5 billion). The transaction was completed in July 2022 under the newly formed entity LIPTON Teas and Infusions.

Stores

The inaugural T2 outlet commenced operations on 1 July 1996 at 340 Brunswick Street, located in Fitzroy, Melbourne. A subsequent store opened on Fitzroy Street in St Kilda, but it shuttered within a year due to insufficient customer traffic. After experiencing a 20% increase in sales the following year, T2 expanded its footprint into the Sydney market.

By November 1999, the opening of a store at Chadstone Shopping Centre, Melbourne, contributed to surpassing $1 million in revenue. T2 officially entered Sydney in 2002 with a new location on King Street, Newtown. The brand grew steadily, reaching six stores by 2004 and eight by 2005, employing 55 staff members and generating $4.4 million in revenue. By 2006, annual revenue had climbed to $8 million.

In 2008, operations were relocated from Fitzroy to leased office space in Port Melbourne. Four years later, in 2012, T2 secured a warehouse in Laverton North and moved its headquarters to a facility in Collingwood.

Despite facing difficult retail market conditions, T2 increased its store count in 2012 by launching its first Tasmanian outlet within Hobart's Cat & Fiddle Arcade. A new Melbourne store opened at 269 Little Collins Street in May 2013, followed by another location at Cairns Central later that year.

The year 2014 saw the addition of 18 new stores worldwide, including three outlets in London—most notably on Shoreditch High Street—and one store in New York City. In 2015, a fourth London branch debuted at 290 Regent Street in the West End.

T2 expanded into Scotland and Asia in 2017 by opening flagship stores on Glasgow’s Buchanan Street and launching its first Asian presence in Singapore. By November of that year, the company operated more than 96 stores across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and Asia.

In 2023, T2 announced it would cease all Northern Hemisphere operations to concentrate on markets closer to its core regions: Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. The US locations were closed by February 2023, with the final California store shutting down in June of the same year.

Wholesale

By the mid-2000s, T2 was supplying tea to roughly 300 cafés and restaurants throughout Australia. This number expanded to around 400 wholesale clients by September of that year, including some international partners. By mid-2011, wholesale accounts had grown to approximately 500 and surged to about 3,000 by 2015.

Branding

T2 retail outlets are designed with tasting tables and ingredient stations that allow customers to sample products on site. Their interiors are characterized as "apothecary-style" boutiques featuring dark color schemes highlighted with orange and black accents. The Shoreditch (London) location incorporated a bespoke tea fountain as part of its interior design.

Tea blends

Media coverage has noted that since at least 2003, T2 has offered more than 250 unique tea blends. Signature blends such as Melbourne Breakfast (a black tea infused with vanilla) and Brisbane Breakfast (mango-flavored) are named after Australian cities and distributed internationally.

Awards and Recognition

• Co-founder Maryanne Shearer received the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year accolade in 2012
• The Shoreditch store earned Store of the Year at the Retail Design Institute's International Design Competition in 2014; meanwhile, the Collingwood headquarters secured Silver at the 2014 Melbourne Design Awards for corporate interior design
• Packaging for T2 Tea Cotton Teabags, designed by Christopher Stanko, was shortlisted as a finalist in the 2015 Australian Packaging Design Awards within the Beverage category

Book Author

In 2015, Shearer released T2: the book, which explores the brand's background, different tea types, and methods for brewing. A 2016 evaluation in Library Journal commended its visual presentation, describing it as "more than merely a promotional piece for T2."

Created by Evi O, T2: the book received the Australian Book Designers Association award for Best Designed Fully-illustrated Book under $50 in 2016.

See also

• Tea in Australia
• List of oldest companies in Australia
• List of tea companies