Bala Sarda, 27, Founder & CEO of Vahdam Teas shares the initiatives being taken to make Indian tea a global brand
Q. What motivated you to start a tea industry and how unique it is from your competitors?
We started Vahdam Teas, a home-grown Indian tea brand which works without the involvement of unnecessary middlemen. Vahdam Teas is the World’s First Tea Company which includes a ‘Date of Picking / Harvest’ along with the ‘Date of Packaging’.
Q. How is your organisation helping the tea farmers to get a better price for their produce?
In Vahdam’s disruptive supply chain, we have managed to eliminate any involvement of unnecessary middlemen by leveraging technology. This helps in retaining the profits at the source where these divine teas are grown and nurtured, bringing better prices to the farmer. So this is how our unique radical supply chain process helps farmers.
Q. How are you planning to make your tea brand a global brand?
Vahdam Teas is the first Indian company ever to make it to the prestigious list of ‘Oprah’s Favourite Things for 2018’. We have successfully shipped more than 100 Million cups of tea around the world in more than 85 countries to date. Our focus is to establish VAHDAM TEAS as a home-grown Indian tea brand and to put the luxury of our garden-fresh Indian teas on the globe.
Under this CSR initiative, 1 percent of our revenue is directed towards funding the education of our tea growers’children
Q. What is the mission of your social initiative ‘TEAch Me’?
Tea farmers in India have been amongst the worst hit. Hence we picked two core areas – ‘Education’ and ‘Health’. Our first social initiative is TEAch Me. Under this CSR initiative, 1 percent of our revenue is directed towards funding the education of our tea growers’ children.
Q. How would you guide the students to be a job creator rather than job seeker?
The key is to ‘unlearn’ a lot of preconceived notions about career and work, to develop a habit of self introspection whenever possible, and to trust your team with their sensibilities and decisions. I have a long way to go before I can advise any further and it has been a pleasant journey of self-realization.
