How to Open a Tea Shop Brewed for Success in UK

Opening a tea shop in the UK involves understanding your target market and competition, creating a well-researched business plan, sourcing suppliers, acquiring permits, finding a great location, using the best technology available and investing in marketing.

In this article, you will find a detailed guide on how to open a tea shop in the UK, full of must-know tips, budget approximation and equipment lists that will help you launch your business in little time.

It’s no secret that having tea is the favorite past time of many people in the UK. But how can you convince as many people as possible to come enjoy tea at your business? Find out from the guide below on how to open a tea room:

When you sell any type of product, you need to identify and understand your audience. Once you know who the most likely people are to buy your tea, you can customize your business and offerings to cater to their preferences.

Here are a few statistics about tea drinkers in the UK you can use to your advantage:

• 37% of tea drinkers have a high annual household income;
• 47% of tea drinkers remember seeing ads on social media;
• 50% of people like their tea brewed to the color of a Yorkshire Pudding;
• 36% of people in the UK will drink three-four cups of tea each day;
• 48% of 25-34-year-olds in the UK drink tea.

Check out these tips to take advantage of the statistics mentioned above:

• Have a poll in Instagram stories asking followers to vote on their preferred color for black tea;
• Create paid ads on social media with a direct link to your menu/website;
• Add interesting tea flavors to attract the audience composed of 25- to 34-year-olds.

Before delving into the more detailed steps of how to open a tea shop in the UK, you must first be aware of the market you are trying to enter. You can get a good idea by researching your competitors and finding out:

• What menu items they serve. Do they also offer food and what type of food?
• What are their prices?
• Is their location attracting passers-by?
• How powerful is their online presence?
• What do their online reviews say?

You can use the information as inspiration to create a business with better products and design to tempt potential customers to choose your tearoom instead of theirs.

Furthermore, after analyzing the competition, you must choose a niche with few competitors if you want to stand out fast. For example, you can focus on offering cream tea at every hour of the day with in-house baked products.

The tearoom business plan is the steppingstone for your tea shop. It will act as a thorough guideline for your business’s success. Here is what your business plan must contain:

• Business model: do you plan to have a fixed physical location or do you want to start a food truck business and follow your target audience?
• Executive summary: what is your tea shop’s concept and mission? What goals do you plan to achieve?
• Branding: tone of voice, brand persona, logo, colors, font, and other design elements;
• Market analysis: target audience, local competition, and potential for success in the local market;
• Products and services: how will your menu look and what will your prices be? Will you also be offering specific services, like afternoon tea?
• Team structure: how many employees you will have, what their roles will be and how much you will pay them;
• Financial plan: include all estimated costs and forecasted revenue, such as startup costs, operational costs, and profitability analysis;
• Operational plan: detail all the steps involved into running the business daily, from restocking inventory and serving customers to closing procedures at the end of the day;
• Marketing plan: step-by-step guide on how much money you will invest, the platforms you will use, and the strategies you will implement to promote your tea shop.

How to open a tea shop in UK? Start by creating a unique menu that many customers won’t be able to resist! Here are a couple of tearoom menu ideas that are popular in Great Britain:

• Bagels: prepared fresh with classic combinations like cream cheese and salmon or more daring flavors like beetroot and goat cheese;
• Finger sandwiches: great for afternoon tea. Try combos like Cajun chicken, cucumber and cream cheese or egg and cress;
• Scones: these are a must have on any tea shop menu, served with clotted cream and a choice of jam;
• Pastries: cinnamon roll, babka roll, cardamom roll, croissant, pain au chocolat.

Moreover, check out these tea and drink options to try out at your tea shop:

• Specialty hot and iced teas: black tea, green tea, chai latte;
• Herbal infusions for people who don’t want to consume caffeine;
• Coffee: espresso, americano, cortado, flat white, cappuccino, macchiato, caffe latte;
• Hot chocolate with different flavors;
• Lemonades and smoothies.

You can play around with your menu options and flavors until you find the ones that sell best. If you want to update your menu easy and fast and with no extra cost, consider creating an online menu with GloriaFood.

In the UK, according to Natasha’s Law, food businesses are required to label all menu items with the 14 most common allergens. You can use the menu editor to add allergen and nutritional information to each menu item.

Opening a tea shop in the UK starts with getting the required licenses and permits to ensure you won’t get any fines. The selling tea regulations in the UK involve obtaining:

• Registration as a food business: Free; you must register with your local authority at least 28 days before opening. You can do it on the UK website;
• Premise license: £100 to £1,905; if you plan to sell hot food after 11 p.m. and alcohol at any hour. As part of the process, you will have to assign a Designated Premise Supervisor that will be most often available on premise;
• Personal license: £37 + £23 for criminal record check + possible other small taxes; if you sell alcohol at your business;
• Music license: around £528.17 + VAT anually; if you plan to play any type of copyrighted music or host live music events;
• Pavement license: typically, £500 for a new application and £350 for a renewal; is necessary if you want to create some outside space for your business with tables and chairs or if you want to place signs on the pavement;
• Company registration: usually free, there may be additional cost due to building structure; this certifies that your team room is a legal business;
• Food hygiene certificate: starting from £10-£20 for a basic Level 2 online course and £79+ for a Level 3 course; to prove employees have gone through food safety training.

One of the most important steps in any guide on how to open a tea shop is buying the necessary equipment. As it is one of the biggest start-up costs for your business, you must plan accordingly and budget for every item.

Check out this tea shop equipment list:

• Commercial tea brewer: around £900 to £2.000.00; for large batches of tea, useful if you want to attract takeaway orders;
• Electric kettles, infusers, tea strainers: around £500; to provide hot water for tea served in location;
• Water filtration systems: around £18.000; to provide customers with quality tap water;
• Blenders: around £300; for smoothies and mixed drinks;
• Juicers: around £300;
• Milk frother: around £70;
• Coffee machine: around £600;
• Syrup pumps: around £200;
• Ovens, proofers, toasters: around £900.00; to prepare menu items like pastries and scones;
• Refrigeration units: around £1.700.00; to keep inventory fresh until serving;

For serving, you will need:

• Teapots and teacups;
• Glassware;
• Serving trays, plates, and cutlery;
• Straws;
• Takeaway cups and lids and containers for food items;
• Tissues and takeout bags.

When searching for information on how to open a tea shop, location is always one of the important factors. Where your space is can influence the number of customers and sales. First, you have to choose between:

• Static location: a shop that can have seating or not, depending on the type of service you want to offer;
• Mobile tea shop: a food truck that serves tea and other items like coffee, scones, and sandwiches. The advantage here is that you can change the location to follow your target market.

Here are a few tips to help you choose a profitable location for your tearoom:

• Look for busy areas: if you don’t want to solely rely on online marketing, you need to be in a busy spot where your tea shop will attract passers-by;
• Choose a space near your target audience: for example, if you cater to office workers, you should ideally find a place near office buildings;
• Make it accessible: both with public transport and a ramp so every customer can visit your tea business.

The key to opening a successful tea shop is to find the perfect blend between quality menu items and irreproachable service. To achieve the later goal, you need to rely on helpful technology, that ideally include the following features with great benefits:

• Increased client satisfaction: customers will be able to pay with their preferred method, be it cash, credit card, or smartphone and will be happy to experience speedy service with no order-taking errors;

• Ability to serve clients even during internet problems: your tea shop will function as normal, and you will be able to open checks and accept payments even if the internet is down;

• Higher sales thanks to promos on receipts: you can print out offers on the receipts you give clients to get them to come back and order again;

• Easier work for employees: staff is able to immediately log-in with RFID cards and find menu items easily due to the color-coded dashboard. The intuitive interface makes every operation a breeze;

• Push to improve business with the help of statistics: you get access to a Reports module that gives you valuable data about your tearoom, such as number of sales, type of clients, best-selling items and much more.

If you want to enjoy all the benefits mentioned above and more, install the GloriaFood POS system at your tea shop. The process is intuitive, and you get a great value for money.

Another relevant step in this guide on how to open a tea shop in UK is getting the word out about your business. Otherwise, how would people know about it? This is what your tea shop marketing plan must include:

• Get an SEO-optimized website: search engine optimization helps you rank as one of the first results in searches related to your type of business. You can get the results without all the work if you use the website builder from GloriaFood. The website will be delivered to you customized to your business needs and already SEO-optimized;

• Complete your Google Business Profile: with exact address, working hours, menu offerings and a variety of photos of menu items, design, and atmosphere. You can check the health of your profile and see improvement suggestions by using the online ordering system from GloriaFood.

• Invest in paid ads on social media and Google: make the most out of your investment by only targeting your desired audience. Don’t forget to also use powerful calls to action such as “Click here to order!” or “Buy now to get 10% off your order!”. Moreover, include a direct link to your online menu that you can generate for free using our online ordering system;

• Offer promotions: attract customers, get previous clients to return, and increase average order value with irresistible promotions such as 2+1 free or 5% off all scones. You can set up a variety of promotions in seconds using the Promotions module from GloriaFood;

• Start email marketing campaigns: do you wany to get more loyal customers? Then start sending out email marketing campaigns with the Autopilot module from GloriaFood. The program automatically segments customers according to purchasing history to deliver persuasive messages that encourage customers to place a second order, re-engage dormant clients, and prevent cart abandonment.

How to open a tea shop in UK? Start big with an impressive launch that will have everybody in your area talking about the new tea business. Check out these useful tips on how to organize a launch event that everybody will remember:

• Offer freebies: for example, free cookie for the first 100 people who show up to the opening or free cup of tea for the first 50 people;
• Have promotions available during the event: make the launch feel more exclusive by offering small promos like 10% off all simple scones or 2+1 free for the Earl Grey tea;
• Offer small samples: have tasting samples of your variety of teas to show people the quality of your products and tempt them to buy;
• Add entertainment: you can have a live music moment, a photo corner, or a brewing station where you teach people about different types of tea.

The cost for opening a tea shop in the UK can vary wildly due to a few factors such as city, location, size of the space, and menu offerings. Check out these estimations that will help you prepare a budget for your business.

The startup costs that include everything range from £25,000 to £150,000. Here is a short breakdown of tea shop expenses:

• Rent: £3,000 to £30,000;
• Equipment: £8,000 to £50,000;
• Legal fees: £1,500 to £8,000;
• Marketing: £1,500 to £12,000.

If you want to launch a tea shop but don’t have the budget yet, here are some funding options you can consider:

• Start-up Loans: new and early stage UK businesses can get personal loans of £500 to £25,000 from a government-backed scheme that is supported by British Business Bank;
• Bank Loans: contact different bank to find out their current interest rates;
• Angel investors: with a convincing business plan, you can get high net worth people to invest in your business in exchange for equity;
• Crowd funding: use platforms like Kickstarter and Crowdfunding to share your idea and convince people to donate;
• Ask family and friends for a loan: especially if you have a create business plan and can promise a return on their investment.

Gathering information on how to open a tea shop helps you cover all fronts and be prepared to handle all situations when launching a tearoom. Make it a priority to offer both quality of menu items and service, which you can easily achieve by relying on the GloriaFood ecosystem.