Tetley Tea Company Jamaica (Tetley) headed by John Mahfood, is eyeing expansion of its operations by an additional investment of $100 million to be spent on product innovation, facility expansion and increased export capabilities.

Yesterday Mahfood told the Business Observer that he aims to strengthen the marketing and promotion efforts already undertaken by the company, with a view to increasing the level of exports to markets in the United States, Canada, UK and the Caribbean.

Mahfood said that Tetley’s exports total 40 per cent of the sales, recorded last year. Tetley, the largest producer of tea in the English-speaking Caribbean, sells 100 million bags of tea per year to the Caribbean and North America.

Gary Peart, CEO of Mayberry Investments Limited, the investment firm charged with the responsibility of positioning the the tea maker strategically, said that there is still a lot of room for growth in Tetley.

“When you break it down, if you assume that two million people drink some form of tea that is just 30 bags per person,” Peart said. “There is still significant growth potential there.”

One of those considerations, said Mahfood is the acquisition of other businesses.

“We want to be in a position to acquire other businesses as the opportunity arises, whether it is tea or other export related products,” he said.

Formed in 1967, Tetley, which was acquired by the Mahfoods in 1995 has been transformed from a producer of only black teas, to producing over 40 different types of teas, including the popular ‘herbal’ varieties including lemongrass, cerasse and ginger mint under the Caribbean Dreams brand, which is wholly owned by the Mahfoods. Peart said expansion will most likely take place under this label. Some has already begun.

So far, the Caribbean Dreams brand has faciltated the introduction of a ready to drink chocolate drink mix, called ‘Old Style Chocolate’, which Mahfood said was produced for them by another local manufacturer. Other products being contemplated include barbeque flavoured sauce and coconut milk powder, ‘things that people think about when they are away from Jamaica’, according to Mahfood.

“Part of their growth potential is that they have their own brand. Caribbean Dreams is not restricted to just tea bags alone,” Peart said.

Mahfood has said that there are no plans currently in place to expand on Tetley’s manufacturing capability, but that the company has ‘run out of warehousing space’, making this a priority of the expansion as well.

According to Peart, Mayberry is currently in the process of assessing the company to see where the best strategy lies going forward. “We are analyzing the balance sheet, looking at the relationship with their suppliers and looking at the best areas to see what is the way to go.” He said that at this time no decision has been made as to whether the company will be using debt or equity to fund the expansion.

But Mahfood told the Business Observer that the possibility of listing on the Stock Exchange is being considered. “It is one of the opportunities that we are looking at,” Mahfood said. “If we were to list, we would go on the Junior Stock Exchange.”

He said that given the company’s capitalisation requirements, the Junior Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE), with a capital requirement of $500 million would be ideal for its expansion efforts.

Mayberry is has successfully listed many companies on the (JSE) over the years, and listed the first company on the junior market in 2009. It was announced last week that Mayberry would be handling the listing of soap manufacturer Blue Power on the Junior JSE this year as well.

“Many people have said that manufacturing is dead in Jamaica, but we are in the process of listing Blue Power and here it is that we have another manufacturer that is producing teas that could potentially list,” Peart said.

According to Peart a similar consultation process has been used by many other companies in recent times in an effort to craft a strategy in dealing with the uncertainties of the economic environment, Peart said.

“Since the credit crisis the demand for it has increased dramatically. People need more advisors to look at where to go strategically. It is not just about listing the company, we can advise the company on how to structure their business not just on equity but debt also. It is not just a one fit solution,” Peart said.