• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • FAQ
  • Meet the Team
  • About The London Economic
  • Advertise
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
NEWSLETTER
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Business and Economics Business

Forget Branson, Pukka’s Westwell and Pole is the next big business success story

Forget Richard Branson, the creators of Pukka herbal teas could have the next big business success story. More than one million cups of Pukka Herbs tea are drunk every day in 40 counties, helping the company to a £28million annual turnover. But it all started as a single classified advert in a local magazine. Boss Tim […]

Jack Peat by Jack Peat
December 27, 2016
in Business, News
FILE PICTURE - Pukka Herbs  founders, Sebastian Pole and Tim Westwell. The co-founder of the booming Pukka herbal teas brand has revealed how the company was founded - by a classified advert in a local magazine. See SWNS story SWPUKKA.  More than one million cups of Pukka Herbs tea are drunk every day in 40 counties, helping the company to a £28million annual turnover.  But now boss Tim Westwell, 55, has revealed the incredible story of how he met co-founder Sebastian Pole through a humble classified ad.  He decided to pack in his corporate life in the IT business and turn his attention to something that inspired him.  Battling depression and with chronic back pain, the then-40-year-old looked to nature to help him overcome his low mood and he soon decided working with herbal remedies would be the "answers to his troubles".  He put a small ad in the Bristol lifestyle magazine Venue and offering his financial expertise in growing a sustainable business.  After two weeks he received only one response - from herbalist Sebastian.  The pair immediately hit it off and decided to launch business in herbalism, using Sebastian's knowledge of alternative therapies and Tim's business accumen.  Pukka Herbs was founded in 2001, mixing teas in Tim's kitchen while running the accounts from Sebastian's bedroom.

FILE PICTURE - Pukka Herbs founders, Sebastian Pole and Tim Westwell. The co-founder of the booming Pukka herbal teas brand has revealed how the company was founded - by a classified advert in a local magazine. See SWNS story SWPUKKA. More than one million cups of Pukka Herbs tea are drunk every day in 40 counties, helping the company to a £28million annual turnover. But now boss Tim Westwell, 55, has revealed the incredible story of how he met co-founder Sebastian Pole through a humble classified ad. He decided to pack in his corporate life in the IT business and turn his attention to something that inspired him. Battling depression and with chronic back pain, the then-40-year-old looked to nature to help him overcome his low mood and he soon decided working with herbal remedies would be the "answers to his troubles". He put a small ad in the Bristol lifestyle magazine Venue and offering his financial expertise in growing a sustainable business. After two weeks he received only one response - from herbalist Sebastian. The pair immediately hit it off and decided to launch business in herbalism, using Sebastian's knowledge of alternative therapies and Tim's business accumen. Pukka Herbs was founded in 2001, mixing teas in Tim's kitchen while running the accounts from Sebastian's bedroom.

Forget Richard Branson, the creators of Pukka herbal teas could have the next big business success story.

More than one million cups of Pukka Herbs tea are drunk every day in 40 counties, helping the company to a £28million annual turnover. But it all started as a single classified advert in a local magazine.

Boss Tim Westwell, 55, has revealed the incredible story of how he met co-founder Sebastian Pole and how he battled depression and chronic back pain to make the business a success.

He put a small ad in the Bristol lifestyle magazine Venue and offering his financial expertise in growing a sustainable business. After two weeks he received only one response – from herbalist Sebastian.

The pair immediately hit it off and decided to launch business in herbalism, using Sebastian’s knowledge of alternative therapies and Tim’s business accumen.

swns_pukka_herbs_04

Pukka Herbs was founded in 2001, mixing teas in Tim’s kitchen while running the accounts from Sebastian’s bedroom.

RelatedPosts

Boris Johnson reckons we will return to office life and working from home won’t last

‘Donald J Trump ain’t going anywhere’ – Trump remains the dominant force at US conservative conference

Video – Fireworks fired at police as hundreds take part in anti-lockdown protest

1,000 homeless deaths last year as millions to help rough sleepers has gone unspent

Talking about the advert, Tim added: “It was just a couple of lines, asking for anyone with an interest in herbalism, with a creative business idea who might need help.”

And once the duo were brought together and leapt into action, they ran the company from an unusual office-space.

Seb, 46, said: “When we started I was mixing the teas in my kitchen and Tim was running the company from his back bedroom.

“But even then, in those early days, I had confidence that it was going to take off – not in an arrogant way, I just knew that what we were creating was a good idea.”

Explaining his desire to get into herbalism, Tim said: “I started to look for more natural remedies to my problems, and started reading up on herbalism.

“It was a time, around 2001, when that kind of traditional medicine was starting to be taken seriously in this country, along with other eastern traditions like yoga.

“So I decided that I somehow wanted to work in that field – I sensed it was the answer to my troubles.”

swns_pukka_herbs_01

Fast-forward to today and Pukka Herbs has come a long way from those few inches in the back of a local magazine.

The Bristol-based company now employs more than 100 staff, works with suppliers and farmers in more than 30 countries and ships teas to 40 plus countries worldwide including China.

Seb’s kitchen has been replaced by a 19,000sq ft warehouse space, they have seen sales grow by nearly 30 per cent every year for the past ten years and three lines of tea has been extended 40.

But the boys always stayed true to their humble routes – keeping the ingredients organic, Fair Trade where possible and donating one per cent of their profits every year to environmental charities.

And Seb, who still practices herbalism – using plants for medicinal purposes – believes this is just the beginning for Pukka Herbs.

“People are still just discovering herbalism,” he said.

“There are 30,000 plants out there used in herbalism, so there’s so much for us to tap into.”

Not only that, but he thinks people will be swapping a builder’s brew for a Pukka teabag sooner than they think.

He added: “Increasingly I think we’ll see herbal teas taking on traditional black tea as the drink of choice, because the health benefits are enormous.”

Since you are here

Since you are here, we wanted to ask for your help.

Journalism in Britain is under threat. The government is becoming increasingly authoritarian and our media is run by a handful of billionaires, most of whom reside overseas and all of them have strong political allegiances and financial motivations.

Our mission is to hold the powerful to account. It is vital that free media is allowed to exist to expose hypocrisy, corruption, wrongdoing and abuse of power. But we can't do it without you.

If you can afford to contribute a small donation to the site it will help us to continue our work in the best interests of the public. We only ask you to donate what you can afford, with an option to cancel your subscription at any point.

To donate or subscribe to The London Economic, click here.

The TLE shop is also now open, with all profits going to supporting our work.

The shop can be found here.

You can also SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER .

Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending fromTLE

  • All
  • trending

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

Stress, fear and homelessness: The threat looming over families confronted with eviction

File photo dated 07/11/03 of a prison cell.

The Other Prison Pandemic

Latest from TLE

Boris Johnson reckons we will return to office life and working from home won’t last

Credit;PA

‘Donald J Trump ain’t going anywhere’ – Trump remains the dominant force at US conservative conference

thunder ball results

Thunder Ball Results, Saturday 27th February 2021

National Lottery Lotto Results – Saturday 27th February 2021

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: jack@thelondoneconomic.com

Commercial enquiries, please contact: advertise@thelondoneconomic.com

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech & Auto
  • About The London Economic
  • Meet the Team
  • Privacy policy

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.