CHICAGO — During a tough financial period, Brook Eddy recalls having her mailman on speed dial because she was desperate to get her hands on any outstanding cheques from clients. This year, her business is set to reach nearly US$2-million in sales and is pushing toward national distribution for its spicy tea drinks.
"I had his cell number, I would call him," said Ms. Eddy, founder and chief executive of Boulder, Colo.-based beverage company Bhakti Chai. "I'd drive and find him and he would give me a stack of cheques. I would be ripping them open on the way to the bank."
Things have changed a lot since those touch-and-go times in 2008. Bhakti Chai has moved to a dedicated production facility outside Boulder and employs a staff of 11. Devotees of its fresh, organic tea drinks include Whole Foods customers throughout the Rocky Mountain region, as well as those of local coffeehouses and retailers.
It's surprising growth for a venture that began by chance with virtually no startup capital. During an extensive family tour of India in 2002, Ms. Eddy fell in love with chai, a sweetened tea drink infused with ginger, cardamom and other spices that is combined with milk. She came home, got on with her life - including marriage and the birth of twins - and began experimenting with a homebrew version, handing it out as gifts in mason jars.
"I would create a concentrate, mix it half and half with milk or plain soy milk," she said. "It really wasn't a business idea at all. It was just something I did. I liked it."
By 2006, encouraged by the chai's popularity within her circle, she began selling it to local cafés, where it was a hit. Production moved out of the house to a rented space in a shared commercial kitchen.
"It was just grassroots word of mouth," said Ms. Eddy, who uses only fresh, fair-trade ingredients, including about 800 pounds of organic ginger every week. "Sometimes I'd brew all night, deliver at six in the morning and go to work, to my day job."
Two years later, with more than 40 regular customers, Ms. Eddy had had enough of the exhausting schedule. She was juggling multiple roles as part-time brewer, development officer for the Boulder Valley Women's Health Center and mother. Despite an impending divorce and the offer of a raise at her job, she quit and threw herself into the tea business full time.
Bhakti Chai was experiencing growing pains in the form of cash-flow shortages as increasingly larger accounts put in ever-larger orders, sometimes taking more than a month to pay. After failing to secure bank loans, Ms. Eddy drew on her development skills to drum up support from local investors, eventually raising a total of about $250,000. She also tapped Boulder's enthusiastic network of food entrepreneurs, who were eager to help fill her void in business experience by giving freely of their time.
The homework paid off: Whole Foods moved her chai beyond the cafés in its Boulder stores to the refrigerated section of its markets. Bhakti Chai was also picked up by United Natural Foods, a large distributor that moved the tea to other states, including Texas, Wyoming and Arizona. The concentrate, available in several sizes and flavours, is also sold online (bhaktichai.com).
"The space we gave to it is well deserved. It just took off," said Tom Rich, grocery coordinator for Whole Foods' Rocky Mountain region. "When you get a high quality product, you've got to give it some attention."
Call it karma, but Bhakti Chai, which takes its first name from the Hindu word for devotion through social action, also manages to make substantial contributions to charity. Last year, it donated 20% of net income to groups such as the Global Fund for Women. "It's just built into the fabric of what we're doing," Ms. Eddy said.
© Thomson Reuters 2011
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