The food franchise industry is ever-evolving and encompasses everything from restaurants to hot-dog carts, to specialty beverage stores, and spice shops.
Many franchises often innovate new culinary offerings by combining two or more distinct flavors to create a delicious taste that will satisfy one’s soul. The Spice & Tea Exchange is one such franchise that strives to provide its guests with quality products and flavorful memories. It offers a high-quality, diverse assortment of products in a sensory shopping experience.
At the helm of The Spice & Tea Exchange is it’s Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder, Amy Freeman. Amy has curated the franchise into a closely knit team with a family vibe to deliver a best-in-class experience.
We at The Franchise Universe came across Amy in our endeavor to find “The 10 Best Food Franchises to Open in 2021.” We got into the conversation to gain insights about her franchise and how she has intended to create and share the experience of a more flavorful life through her venture.
Below are the highlights of the interview.
Give us a brief overview/inception of The Spice & Tea Exchange®, its mission, and the key aspects of its strong foothold in the Retail industry.
The Spice & Tea Exchange was founded in 2008 with the vision to create a one-of-a-kind, worldclass sensory experience for our guests. We love food, simple as that. We were inspired to share that passion in the retail arena in an original, interactive, and immersive concept. We started with one store in St. Augustine, FL, but quickly recognized the potential of franchising our design.
Our mission of “Creating & sharing the experience of a more flavorful life” is the backbone of our approach, to make a truly memorable shopping experience for our guests. The guest experience is what sets us apart from your standard grocer and the ordinary spice or tea shop down the way. Many of our spice blends and teas are handcrafted right in our stores, which is an essential part of the overall sensory adventure our guests take when they walk in our doors. Guests are encouraged to “open the jars and smell” while they explore the aromas throughout our stores, are invited to watch Spice Masters hand-mix blends, and have the opportunity to enjoy freshly brewed tea from the Tea Bar. All of these offerings are shepherded by a well-trained, knowledgeable staff.
We’re currently at 84 franchise locations and growing! It was a whirlwind in 2020, as every retail concept had to pivot and adapt— our system handled it phenomenally. We saw revenue growth of $1.6M from 2019 to 2020. We signed several franchise agreements in the height of COVID-19 shutdowns and had our best fourth quarter ever. In 2021 we’ve welcomed eight franchise locations, and we anticipate approaching the 100-store mark by the end of 2022.
Describe your top-notch offerings, and what makes your franchise a preferred choice among your clientele over other competitors?
The right ingredients are what set you apart from any competitor— and our spices and teas are Grade-A quality, vetted with discerning palates, and sourced from countries around the globe. Within our shops, you’ll find over 225 premium spices, seasonings, herbs, 45+ loose-leaf teas, a variety of sea and mineral salts, infused sugars, meal kits, gourmet gifts, kitchen/home accessories, and so much more. Many of our stores also boast a fullservice tea bar to enjoy hot and iced tea to-go!
As a retail experience, The Spice & Tea Exchange® seamlessly combines two industries by uniting spices and teas under a concept that blends quality and flavor. Our products go through rigorous sourcing methods with strict quality controls in place. We are keenly aware of our ingredients, working to ensure that we’re providing conscious offerings for all culinary styles and a variety of needs; salt-free, gluten-friendly, wellness, and more.
Several items in our product catalog are brand exclusives, which allows our guests to shop with confidence knowing their selections will be of the finest quality available and with excitement knowing their choices are unique and far from runof-the-mill. Our proprietary recipes are what keep our guests coming back time and time again!
Describe in detail the values that drive The Spice & Tea Exchange® services.
Our core values reflect the dedication of the company and our franchise partners to continually enhance our experience for both ourselves and our guests. We believe that:
“Passion” is a necessity to believe in and enjoy all that we do.
“Distinction” amongst ourselves and in the industry is vital to be unique and creative in all that we do.
“Responsibility” is key to success, accountability, and ownership in all that we do to support our teammates, franchise partners, and guests.
As I frequently discuss with my team, “I is We,” and upholding these values ensures trust and a greater understanding of our purpose as a company.
Would you please shed the knowledge on your training programs that help you to expand your franchise?
We are so fortunate to have an incredible team of Franchise Business Consultants, marketing specialists, and technology professionals to assist our stores as they onboard with us.
Upon signing with The Spice & Tea Exchange, our Franchise Owners complete a full week of Spice UniversiTea at our facilities in St. Augustine, FL, to learn the ins and outs of the organization.
We work with them to focus on tools, methodologies, and technologies that will assist them through the opening of their store. Following Spice UniversiTea, franchisees receive two weeks of on-site education as they prepare to open and begin to implement customer service and merchandising techniques into their day-to-day. We offer virtual education and documented learning curriculum to our system via online platforms to continue their education and train onboarding team members as they grow with us.
What is The Spice & Tea Exchange’s future aspirations? What strategies are you undertaking to achieve those goals?
We are at a pivotal point in our journey where we’re about to hit the big-100! At this moment, we are keen to expand but also focused on infrastructure to bolster our teams and technology to handle what’s to come. We’re further developing our Learning & Development areas to nurture our system (new and existing). We’re growing our consultant teams to give added support to our field and investing in new channels (such as wholesale) to open additional lines of revenue for our owners.
As an established franchise, what would your advice be to up-and-coming entrepreneurs aspiring to venture into the franchise industry?
Understand your purpose for doing what you do, communicate it well, iterate it often, and hire the right individuals who can breathe it with you. Culture and purpose will drive you through those growth stretches and difficult times as you build from the ground up!
