About Company

The first tea shop was opened in November 2006 under the name of “Untsia” and it represented the franchised shop of the St. Petersburg tea shop chain. Since it was an elite type of shop with high quality product and above average price, it was opened on one of the popular streets (Shardeni str.) for Georgians as well as foreign tourists.

The major expectation of the first shop was to introduce the product to well-off Georgians as well as the restaurants which were present there. 

In the beginning we entered the market with over 100 types of tea, tea accessories and sweets. In addition, the company got actively involved in the HORECA business by hiring special sales force.

Soon after the shop was opened, taking in consideration the feedback from our customers we opened a small tea tasting room where customers could relax in a nice atmosphere and enjoy various types of teas before making a purchase.

Tea Mania is established and run by two friends Marika Bibileishvili and Eka Verulashvili. Marika is an Executive Director and has received her Bachelor’s Degree in Business at the University of Oregon. Afterwards she has worked as a consultant in Barents Group as well as NBG. She is currently getting an MBA from Caucasus School of Business. Eka is a Commercial Director.  She is also a University of Oregon Alumni and has an MBA from Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH). Eka has worked for Absolute Bank (1999-2001) and TBC Bank as Head of Card Services and Development Dept from 2001-2006.

The intrigue of the shop was that it sold over 100 types of tea and tea-like products from all over the world. The shop was furnished in an old English style with transparent jars. And the best news for the customer was that he/she wasn’t obliged to buy the whole pack or box, but instead could buy minimum of one ounce (28.35 gr.). The diversity of the products guaranteed to satisfy the taste of any customer. Lastly, the consultants were trained to provide high quality of service regardless of the purchase.

The shop employed four consultants who were trained for one month prior to beginning the work. Even though Georgia used to be a big tea producing country during the Soviet times, the quality of tea has greatly diminished over the years. As we learned from the experience a big effort needed for educating the customers of the shop as well as HORECA (Hotel, restaurant, café) staff.

Just before opening, the political problems with Russia and canceling the direct flights between the countries, forced us to quickly find alternative suppliers. We were lucky enough to get in touch with one of the leading companies in Germany which supplies tea, coffee, sweets and accessories to many countries.  The first trial order was done to set up the link with the company and “Untsia” changed the name to “Tea Mania” and began working independently from the Russian franchisee.

After ten months the second shop was opened in the shopping center – Megaline. This time the owners decided to try a different approach and open a small version of the shop in a café of the shopping center. This way we were able to go closer to our customers which enabled them after tasting tea in the café to be able to take it home. This was an attractive offer to us because our partners have a café chain in several places and were interested in cooperating with us in all places.

The third store was opened in hypermarket Goodwill in December 2007. After one week of pre-New Years sales we realized that the store would be a success even though the rent was several times higher than in other shops. Till now this shop has far higher turnover than other shops. Based on request of our customers we decided to add coffee and sweets in our shops.

In April 2008, yet another store was opened on Tamarashvili street which has a high traffic of people.  In June a small stand was put in a café in GTC shopping center. Currently, Tea Mania chain consists of 5 full range shops (Goodwill, Goodwill Vake, Populi City, Populi XL and Tamarashvili str) and 1 mini versions (GTC).

We are present in more than 20 cafes and restaurants. In addition, we have an exclusive agreement on tea and coffee with two very popular restaurants - Tsiskvili and Ludis Moedani.

About 50% of our turnover is from tea sales, 20% coffee, 20% accessories and 10% sweets. The highest turnover is in Goodwill, afterwards Shardeni, Tamarashvili, followed by Megaline and GTC.

Elite tea shop chain Tea Mania doesn’t have any direct competitors in the retail business because of its unique approach to selling the products.