Brodies
Member Spotlight
Founded in Edinburgh more than 150 years ago, Brodies’ tea and coffee not only represents the finest blend of ingredients from around the world, but a long-held dedication to heritage, tradition and innovation.
The company began in 1867 when three enterprising Scottish tea merchants came together as Brodie, Melrose, Drysdale & Co, offering distinctive tea blends that soon became renowned for superior quality and taste – even drawing the attention of royalty.
Although the world’s most popular full-bodied black tea is now known as English breakfast tea, its roots can actually be traced back to Brodies, Scotland, and a chance encounter with Queen Victoria.
“In the early 1890s, Robert Drysdale, one of our founders, wanted to develop a breakfast tea that would be robust enough to enjoy alongside the heavy breakfasts of the day – a blend that would cut through the fat,” explained Mina MacKenzie, Retail Partner Manager at Brodies.
“After developing the new blend, he went all around Scotland selling to customers and visited Balmoral Castle where Queen Victoria herself tried the tea.
“Balmoral then became a customer, and Queen Victoria loved the tea so much, she took it down with her to London – and found someone to match the blend. That’s how it later became known as English breakfast tea.
“I think that just shows how innovative we have been since the very beginning!”
Over the decades, Brodies has added new product lines to keep up with changing customer demand, including branching out into coffee in the 1930s, selling some of the country’s first teabags in the 1950s, and in the 1990s, adding a range of award-winning Scottish inspired handmade chocolates, which are still made from natural ingredients by the company’s long-serving skilled chocolatiers.
Having become part of the Massimo Zanetti Beverage Group in 2007, Brodies fine teas are now sold in more than 40 countries around the world, with steaming cups served in cafes from Milan to Melbourne.
Mina said: “We are still very much an independent business, but being part of Massimo Zanetti means that we get the support of the group where required, particularly with supply chain integrity which is so important.”
“Plus, there’s nothing more exciting than a friend or colleague being away on holiday and spotting Brodies tea in their hotel room or a local cafe – just recently we received a picture all the way from South America.”
Although Brodies tea and coffee is, first and foremost, available in hospitality settings, such as decerning cafes, restaurants and hotels, customers have increasingly expressed the desire to enjoy the fine blends at home, leading to Mina and the Brodies team exploring more retail options.
With the help of Scotland Food & Drink, and experts at The Knowledge Bank, Brodies conducted consumer research to better understand demands within the busy market, which then allowed Mina to “go in armed with insights” when approaching retailers with a truly Scottish tea and coffee offering from Brodies – a strategy that has paid off.
“We were lucky to be selected for a pilot programme set up by Scotland Food & Drink, which was focused on doing bespoke work for individual Members. That gave us the funding to secure market data as part of our research, and we were also given access to a specialist to help us gain insights from the data. We were then able to pull together a proposition presentation that would help us when approaching retailers. Getting that support was fantastic for us.”
The research found that 8 out of 10 Scottish tea and coffee drinkers wanted to buy Brodies from retail locations, and this information – alongside a great tasting premium product – has helped secure listings in Morrisons, Co-op, Scotmid, and most recently, Tesco.
Mina said: “Launching Brodies teas and coffee enables our customers to offer truly Scottish tea and coffee to their shoppers, as we know that Scottish consumers want to buy Scottish products. It’s been a really exciting time, and we’re so pleased to be able to bring Brodies to more shoppers.”
For more information about Brodies, visit brodies1867.co.uk
