Growing tea in Wales: Now there’s an idea

For a business that is doing things very differently, one only needs to look to the Pembrokeshire Tea Company. Here, a simple plan has grown into much more. Two entrepreneurs planted some tea bushes in South West Wales and from these have produced some unique blends of tea. This simple yet very different action in the area has been enough to generate huge interest from both the media and large retailers alike.

Tony Malone and his partner Michael Ward, the two entrepreneurs in question, are now looking to expand their business. Their first stage is to create a hot house nursery area, where they can nurture new tea plants before they are ready to be planted out in the tea gardens. The company will then harvest, dry and process the leaves before blending them to create tea that is favoured to the British palette.

Going back a couple of steps the company needs to identify the varieties of tea plants that are best suited to the soil and climatic conditions of Pembrokeshire. To meet their business needs, the Pembrokeshire Tea Company decided that they could benefit from locating their product development functions in Technium Pembrokeshire.

Here, within an environment where science and business meet, they could utilise the best combination of business and technology support services that the Technium network provides. In Tony and Michael’s care, what was important was the support of the university networks in helping to analyse local conditions and identify the most suitable varieties of tea plants that would survive and prosper in the moist, mild climate of South West Wales. They found that information at Technium.

Technium Pembrokeshire is one in an eleven strong network of Welsh Techniums. It is a centre for innovation and incubation that provides world class business accommodation in a top class building with a number of sustainable features built-in to its design. Technium provides offices from 285 to over 1,000 sq ft, as well as workshops of up to 3,000 sq ft. Resident companies also have use of meeting rooms, laboratories and the other necessary facilities to support their businesses.

Yet as has been alluded to above, the Technium is much more than just a building: it is a business support programme for business with high technology needs. Resident and associate businesses in the programme are able to call upon and benefit from a comprehensive range of business support services that start from the in-house services provided by the qualified staff and extends to a network of consultants and professionals. Contracted to assist Technium’s resident companies are experts in a range of areas, such as patent advice, legal services, marketing, PR, finance, human resource and labour relations, to name just some of the services provided.

The Technium therefore nurtures young businesses in a business hot-house; to help them flourish and prosper, just as Pembrokeshire Tea tend their young plants in the nursery beds.

Contact David Thomas, Technium Manager at Technium Pembrokeshire Tel: 01646 689302 or email: david.thomas@technium.co.uk, or find out more about Technium at: technium.co.uk. For further details about Welsh tea visit: pembrokeshiretea.co.uk