Thomas M. Grömer, from Vienna, Austria, is a successful European tea entrepreneur known as the “Tea Pope”. In the 1990s, Thomas went to Japan to study, majoring in tea at university and obtaining a Japanese tea taster certificate. In 2001, Thomas founded a tea company in Europe, which now has two tea brands and four office locations in Hamburg and Vienna. Its products are sold to 47 countries in Europe and West Africa. As a successful tea entrepreneur in Europe, Thomas has also provided business consulting services in the past two years, helping tea brands, stores, and practitioners.
Thomas has been associated with tea for over thirty years. In 1991, at the age of 18, Thomas chose to leave Europe to study in Japan, Asia. In preparation for his studies abroad, he learned Japanese at an early age. Thomas pursued his undergraduate and master’s degrees in agricultural tea science at a university in Japan, with a focus on the biochemistry of tea trees. At that time, in the Vienna market in Austria, tea products were mostly common European herbal teas and blended teas. Thomas was delighted with Japanese green tea and its rich green tea by-products, as if he had discovered a new world. During his academic years, he often traveled to tea producing areas in Japan, accumulating rich experiences and obtaining the certificate of Japanese tea taster.
After graduating and returning to Vienna for military service, Thomas worked as a journalist for several years and interviewed many entrepreneurs, which inspired him deeply and led him to decide to start his own business. Thomas used to often bring Japanese tea to friends and family, and has established a small tea drinking community. So he approached investors to propose his idea and together they formed a tea company, which was successfully registered in 2003. He utilized his expertise in tea, language, and familiarity with the source market to enable the company to directly import green tea products from Japan, with a focus on matcha products. At that time, Japan’s industrialization was relatively good and it could provide tea products of the quality that Europe needed. Through years of hard work, Thomas has successfully established two tea brands in the European market, KISSA and aiya. The former is aimed at young people and beginners, while the latter focuses on high-end products. So far, the products have been sold to 47 countries in Europe and West Africa, and the company has 50 employees and four office locations, including post processing packaging and transportation expanded to Hamburg, Germany in 2008.
The name ‘Tea Pope’ is very interesting. A friend once called Thomas this way because Thomas can answer many of his questions about tea and is a tea expert. Thomas is happy to use this name and has been used in various activities. Tea Pope has now become synonymous with Thomas and gained high popularity. In 2023, Thomas has started providing consultation for tea shops and practitioners, conducting online communication with participants every week, teaching them how to do activities, helping them increase sales, imparting marketing and sales skills, and sharing how to find good tea. Thomas has also received training in economics and is willing to share his experience, advocating learning from his own experiences, especially from his mistakes.
In recent years, matcha has become very popular in the European market, and many tea brands have matcha products. However, Thomas believes that there is not much competition and there is still a lot of room for market share, all companies can be considered to develop a larger market together. China exports a lot of matcha, and there are many varieties of tea with unique characteristics, which will definitely have development opportunities and space. Compared to the long-term and large investments in the European market, he believes that other markets may be faster, such as the African market he has developed, where local companies have ordered a large amount of matcha products from his company. Moreover, African countries generally have better relations with China, which will be helpful for the market development of Chinese tea brands. For example, Japan’s overseas tea associations may provide some assistance in promoting local Japanese brands overseas, but the company still needs to find the right direction for development and market its products on its own. Thomas can provide consulting services, analyze brands, plan strategies, design products, and help identify specific consumer groups for products.