Business Session
Presenters' Material
The Annual Tea Convention business sessions are designed to spotlight key issues and concerns that affect the global tea trade. By offering a platform for the presentation of vital and engaging subjects, we aim to stimulate your mind and confront the pressing issues that face our trade today.
* Please note that access to presentations & handout information from the 59th Annual Tea Convention is restricted to Tea Association/Tea Council of the U.S.A. & STI members.
Thursday, October 14th
"Learning to Live with the Bioterrorism Act"
(559KB Powerpoint file - Click to download)
Ms. Cathy Sauceda, Director of Special Enforcement for the Office of Customs & Border Protection and the Office of Operations for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, provided an update on practical measures being enforced at the moment and what can be expected in the future. Before securing her current position, Ms. Sauceda's previous experiences included National and Supervisory Import Specialist for Customs in Laredo, Texas; Director of the North American Free Trade Center (NAFTA) in Dallas TX; Branch Chief of the International Agreements Branch in Washington D.C.; Director of Industry Partnership Programs in Washington DC; Customs Member of the US/Mexico Partnership Plan; as well as the Customs Agency Lead for the Bioterrorism Act.
"RTD Tea vs. Water: A Marketing Opportunity?"
(546KB Powerpoint file - Click to download)
John Stallcup compared the success of bottled water vs. Tea illustrating how the tea industry could profit from increased image creation and promotion to back up its health message.
John Stallcup is a Marketing Consultant with over 20 years of experience building brand equity for both large multinational corporations and small entrepreneurial enterprises. John has held senior marketing positions with The Wine Group (Franzia, Corbett Canyon, Foxhorn), Crystal Geyser (Tejava), and McKesson bottled water. John serves on a number of Wine Industry committees dealing with wine consumer segments and initiated the first nationwide adoption/migration survey of wine consumers. He has executed successful consulting assignments for enterprises as diverse as Unilever, Namelab, Gator.com, Gay & Robinson, Toshiba Power systems, and The European Bank for reconstruction and development. He also served as General Manager of the 1984 Olympic Basketball venue, contributing to the first ever Olympic profitability.
Friday October 15th
"Current Trends in Retailing"(Keynote Speaker)
(*6MB* Powerpoint file - Click to download)
The consumer changes rapidly, and so do the top trends effecting their lives and purchase behavior. Phil Lempert discussed the top ten trends affecting tea-buying consumers. Mr. Lempert reviewed the implications of "Generation X vs. Baby Boomers and how to maximize the opportunities with each. By comparing and analyzing the marketing to both generations and the effectiveness of each, Mr. Lempert revealed the advertising do's and don'ts, as well as an in-depth understanding of generational expectations and cohort effects.
For more than 20 years, Phil Lempert, an expert analyst on consumer behavior, marketing trends, new products and food trends, has identified and explained impending trends to consumers and some of the most prestigious companies worldwide. To consumers he is known as The Supermarket Guru, seen on the Today show and heard weekly on radio. However, to more than 600,000 business leaders, he is a distinguished speaker who aids their success by alerting them to impending corporate and consumer trends, and consulting them to make sound business decisions.
Former president and founder of Lempert Advertising, the only full service food only, award-winning Ad Agency, Phil evolved as the voice of the consumer and became nationally known as The Supermarket Guru.
In the early 1990s, Lempert became a partner and senior vice president of Age Wave, the leading demographic and life stage consulting company. Here he further expanded his career to include demographic and life-style-in-depth analysis. As part of an overall strategy, the firm helped clients deal with the coming-of-age (50+) baby-boomer generation.
Today, as one of America's leading consumer trend watchers and analysts, Lempert now concentrates his efforts editorially as: the food trends editor for NBC's Today Show, hos of a syndicated radio talk show on WOR Radio Network, correspondent for BBC Radio 5 Live, columnist for Progressive Grocer magazine, and editor of SupermarketGuru.com; one of the leading food & health resources on the internet which is visited by more than 5 million people each year, Phil also appears regularly on The View, Oprah, Discovery Health and Extra.
"The Pesticide Initiative - An Update" (532KB Powerpoint file - Click to download)
Frank Farrell Presentation / Andrew Scott Presentation
(528KB Powerpoint file - Click to download)
The initiative to deal with this issue in a Global manner was launched last year at the WTF. Mr. John Snell, Dr. Frank Farrell, & Dr. Andrew Scott re-visited the roots of the issue, looking at the steps taken since the WTF and looking forward to future efforts that will shape the way the US Tea industry addresses its obligations to the consumer, Producer and Legislator alike.
John Snell, Trading Manager for Van Rees (North America) and Chairman of the Tea Association of the U.S.A.'s Convention Committee, has been involved in the tea trade for more than 20 years both as a Packer and as a Trader. He is a confessed tea addict and admits to getting involved in more projects to do with the trade than he should.
Frank Farrell did his college studies in Chemistry at Villanova University and then continued in Chemistry in the MA/PhD program at Princeton University. After spending a few years working on environmental issues for companies in the Chemical and Pharmaceutical industries he accepted a position with Lipton (now Unilever Foods North America). In this position, Frank was responsible for the Analytical Chemistry laboratories supporting Product Development, Tea Research, providing support for QA/QC programs, and various environmental studies especially those to evaluate pesticides and other "contaminants" in foods. Starting in 1979, Frank was a member and then Chair of the Technical Committee of the Tea Association. Frank retired from Unilever approximately 1 year ago and is currently a Professor of Chemistry and Environmental Science at Ramapo College of New Jersey. He also continues to provide technical consulting services to the Tea Association of the USA.
Andrew Scott is a biochemist with research experience in drug metabolism (studies leading to a doctorate at the University of Surry with support from Glaxo) and food research consultancy (Chorleywood and Campden Food Research Association). He joined the international tea company, The
Tetley Group, now a subsidiary of Tata Tea Limited, in 1991. After heading the company's worldwide Research and Development program for many years he now works with its Marketing Development team, bringing innovative new tea products to Tetley's 40 markets around the world. He is working with John Snell (Van Rees North America) and Andy Crimes (Unilever Research) on pesticides in tea and is involved with work on ISO tea standards and methods to measure flavonoids to be published next year. He has recently been appointed Chairman of the ISO Tea Committee.
"White Tea Presentation"
(1.5MB Powerpoint file - Click to download)
President of the Tea Association of the U.S.A., Inc., Mr. Joseph Simrany, shared the results of a recent survey of the Global Tea Industry relative to the definition of White Tea. During the course of delivering these research findings, he encouraged other viewpoints from the audience in an attempt to clarify and quantify the newest tea phenomena known as White Tea.
Joe Simrany is the President of the Tea Association of the U.S.A., Inc., the Tea Council of the U.S.A., Inc., and the Specialty Tea Institute. In these capacities, Joe tracks trends, disseminates information and represents the interests of the wholesale and retail tea industry on a broad spectrum of issues. As President of the Tea Council, he leads the industry's educational and public relations efforts relative to communicating the many attributes of tea to consumers.
"Tea & Health Update on Pending Legislation"
(770KB Powerpoint file - Click to download)
Dr. Frank Farrell PhD provided an update as to the status of our petition to the Food & Drug Administration for a qualified health claim to tea.
"Putting the Tea & Health Message to Practical Use"
(Warning -- this is a LARGE file. *14.2MB* Powerpoint file - Click to download)
Consumers are hungry for information about health. 69% of consumers have added a food to their diet in an effort to eat healthier. Ms. Louise Pollock and Ms. Melissa McAllister discussed the ways in which food and beverage companies are taking advantage of consumer interest in being healthier by marketing product benefits to their target audiences.
As President of Pollock Communications, Inc., Louise Pollock helps clients develop targeted marketing campaigns that cultivate positive brand perceptions among key decision makers. In addition to helping clients market consumer, food, nutrition and technology products, Louise has advised clients on food safety, labor issues, animal rights and biotechnology issues. She has been instrumental in garnering third-party support for clients' products from health and policy-making organizations.
Ms. Pollock has received several awards including Silver Anvils by the Public Relations Society of America, the National Agriculture Marketing Association's Best of NAMA and the President's Circle Award from the American Dietetic Association. She also appears in Who's Who in America, Who's Who Among Marketing Executives, and Who's Who Among American Women.
Melissa McAllister is a vice president/account director at Pollock Communications where she counsels clients in the strategic development and implementation of marketing and nutrition education campaigns targeted to a variety of consumer and health professional audiences. Since joining Pollock Communications in 1997, Melissa has managed publicity and health professional education programs for the Tea Council and has overseen two International Scientific Symposia on the role of tea in the diet with partnership support from key research and governmental organizations. In addition to her work with Tea Council, Melissa has also executed nutrition education campaigns for a broad variety of food products ranging from orange juice and rice to chocolate.
Saturday, October 16th
"Growth Trends in RTD & Specialty Tea" (525KB Powerpoint file - Click to download)
The US Tea Market (Handout) (92KB Adobe PDF - Click to download)
Mr. Brad Borgman, Business Development Manager for Euromonitor Consultancy, discussed recent developments in the U.S. tea market, looking at market sizes and forecast trends as well as competitive and distribution activity with a focus on Specialty and RTD tea.
Brad and Euromonitor Consultancy count more than 500 active clients, many of whom are listed among the Fortune 500 companies. Strategy work typically deals with complementing and/or expanding upon the syndicated information already provided by parent company Euromonitor International in order to provide a broad comparative global market view of product/service sizing and trends, looking closely at competitive and distribution developments across a broad range of consumer and B2B product and service sectors.
"What's New with the Specialty Tea Institute"(1.5MB Powerpoint file - Click to download)
Mr. Joseph Simrany and the Chairman of the Special Tea Institute Advisory Board; Mr. Shashank Goel, provided an update on the status of projects being conducted by the Specialty Tea Institute. These activities are designed to keep the market for Specialty Tea hot and will likely have impact on the future health of the entire industry.