Arbor Teas goes green, expands staff to 6 people

Wednesday, April 28, 2010 | Source: Concentrate

Ann Arbor residents Aubrey and Jeremy Lopatin wanted to start a business to go with their day jobs a little more than six years ago. Today they have a sustainable, web-based start-up that revolves around tea called Arbor Teas.

"We initially wanted to open a café but we didn't have the capital for that," says Aubrey Lopatin. "So we looked at what other options were out there. We both love tea and food. It was a natural match."

The Ann Arbor-based firm sells different sorts of exotic teas from its website around the world. Today about 85-90 percent of the company's customers are from outside of Michigan. It has allowed Aubrey Lopatin to make this her full-time profession (Jeremy is still an analyst with Pure Visibility) and now have a staff of four people and an intern. It hopes to hire again in the near future.

One of its latest innovations is coming out with a sustainable packing that is compostable. That means users can take the tea bags, leaves and packing and put it in their compost pile in their own backyard. That goes with its ethos of delivering organic, free-trade teas in the most sustainable way possible.

"That's our niche and our way to move forward," Lopatin says.

Source: Aubrey Lopatin, co-owner of Arbor Teas
Writer: Jon Zemke