T2 (Australian company)

In 1996, Jan O'Connor and Maryanne Shearer each put in $50,000 to start the company as equal co-founders.[7]

In 'T2: the book', Maryanne Shearer noted that her business relationship with O'Connor deteriorated when she returned to work in March 2000 after having her first child. As relations continued to be strained, an acrimonious legal battle ensued forcing O'Connor to leave the business. Bruce Crome, Shearer's partner, purchased O'Connor's share in the business at the end of October 2001.[8][9]

In 2007, Maryanne Shearer and partner Bruce Crome sold 50 per cent of T2 to retail investors Jonathan Dan and Phillip Blanco. After disagreements about growth strategies, Shearer and Crome bought 25 per cent back from Blanco, but Dan continued his investment.[10]

Multinational company Unilever acquired T2 from Maryanne Shearer and Bruce Crome in October 2013. As of 2015, Shearer was T2's Creative Director. In announcing the acquisition, Shearer highlighted Unilever's leading role in adopting sustainable agriculture practices for the tea industry as being a good values fit for T2.[11] T2 had worked with Fairtrade since 2009 on the English breakfast tea blend.[12] The Sydney Morning Herald noted that restaurant owner Michael Ryan reacted to the acquisition news with a tweet describing the company as "Unilever's Teas'r'Us".[13] In 2017, writer Jayne D'Arcy used the term "Unilever-ed", to describe the company's shift from being locally Melbourne-owned.[14]

The purchase price was estimated to be less than $100 million,[15] and was later disclosed as $60 million.[16] Legal services for T2 were provided by Baker & McKenzie and Harris Carlson, with financial advice from Deloitte. Legal services for Unilever were provided by Johnson Winter & Slattery, with financial advice from KPMG.[17]

On 1 July 1996, the first store was opened at 340 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. A second store was opened on Fitzroy Street, St Kilda,[18] but it was closed after 12 months due to low patronage. However, the following year sales increased 20% which fuelled a vision to expand into Sydney.[19]

In November 1999, a store was opened in Chadstone Shopping Centre, Australia's premier shopping centre. The store was immediately a success, helping to increase T2's revenue beyond $1 million.

In 2002, T2 expanded to Sydney with a store in King Street, Newtown. In 2004, there were six stores in the chain, and by 2005 there were eight stores, fifty-five team members and a turnover of $4.4 million. In 2006 the turnover was $8 million. In 2008, they moved their operations from Fitzroy to a leased office in the Port Melbourne area.[20] In August 2012, they leased a warehouse at 50 Cyanamid Street in Laverton North.[21] In September 2012, T2 leased a building at 35 Wellington Street in Collingwood, with the intention of relocating the head office to that location.[22]

In March 2012, Shearer declared that T2 were "being brave" in the difficult retail climate by continuing to expand their number of stores.[23] In September 2012, the first Tasmanian T2 store was opened in the Cat & Fiddle Arcade, Hobart.[24]

In May 2013, a T2 shop was opened at 269 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, after it was vacated by designer Bettina Liano due to rental costs.[25] That same year, T2 opened a store in Cairns Central.[26]

In 2014, 18 new stores were opened. Three of the stores opened in London[27] (including on Shoreditch High Street[28]) and one in New York City. A year later, a fourth London store was opened at 290 Regent Street, in the West End.[29]

In 2015, there were over seventy stores in four countries, and around 1,000 team members.

In 2017, the first T2 stores were opened in Scotland[30] (131 Buchanan Street, Glasgow[31]), and in Singapore[32] (the first outlet in Asia[33]). As of November 2017, there are over 96 stores across Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Asia.[34]

Towards the end of 1996, O'Connor developed a custom tea blend for Geoff Lindsay's restaurant Stella. The T2 'Stella' blend was mentioned on the menu, which created a lot of interest from diners. After realising there was a huge opportunity supplying tea to restaurants, an untapped market, O'Connor created a wholesale division for T2.

From mid-2000 T2 was supplying 300 cafes and restaurants in multiple states of Australia.[35] By September that year the number had increased to 400 with a few international accounts.[36] By mid 2001 the number of wholesale accounts had grown to approximately 500.[37] In 2015 there were 3000 wholesale accounts.

Articles in 1997,[64] 1998[65] and 2000[66] confirmed that T2 was co-founded by Jan O'Connor and Maryanne Shearer.

Following Jan O'Connor's departure in October 2001[7] an article on the history of T2 in the Sydney Morning Herald did not mention co-founder Jan O'Connor's role in the company, but discussed Shearer's focus on educating tea-drinkers about high-quality black teas.[67] A 2008 article on female tea doyennes in The Age profiled Shearer as T2's founder, and at the helm of the business, "...minus her original business partner...".[68] Articles in 2010,[51] 2011,[69] 2012[70][71] and 2013,[72] incorrectly described Shearer as the sole "Founder" of the company. In 2016, Shearer was listed as 'Founder, T2 Tea' in a featured book chapter, but acknowledged that the company began with a business partner.[73]

After the publicity around Unilever's acquisition of the brand, Jan O'Connor spoke out in a 2014 article in the Australian Financial Review.[74] O'Connor said she felt she was being written out of T2's corporate history while Shearer financially benefited from the business' sale.

In December 2013, a Ford Falcon sedan crashed through the front window of the Hobart store, but the driver did not incur serious injuries.[75] In February 2017, two men fighting each other fell through the window of the Cheltenham store, and were both injured by the broken glass.[76]