Enchanté, I am Palais des Thés
- Daphnée Korkmaz
- 5 oct. 2021
- 3 min de lecture
Dernière mise à jour : 21 janv. 2022
Rated 64th among the SME the most profitable in France in 2018 [1], the crazy story of the house Palais des Thés began in 1986, with the founder François-Xavier Delmas, along with about 45 friends, neighbors, and tea lovers.
Back then, Palais des Thés was the only French tea house to directly import tea from Asia. Indeed, it was essential for the founder to closely monitor supplying and go himself meet the producers and manufacturers in Asia, which allowed him to cultivate a privileged and sustainable relationship with them [2]. Like an adventurer, Delmas spends half of his time selecting the best tea in China, India, Japan, Taiwan, Nepal or even Sri Lanka. Such a personal investment demonstrates the attention given to the conditions in which tea is harvested and to the environment more globally.
« I got fond of this product and the people that make it. What is fascinating is the work, the slowness, the time it takes to make a kilogram of tea » - François-Xavier Delmas, founder of Palais des Thés.
This approach allowed the house to grow a solid knowledge about gardens, plantations and techniques. It perfectly resonates with one of their main goal which is to share tea culture to the public, democratize the knowledge of tea but also give them access to qualitative products.
A tea house focused on accessible quality and on the finest expertise
Positioned as a modern brand, the house Palais des Thés offers a wide range of choices, while guaranteeing exquisite gustative quality, freshness, and sophisticated products. Indeed, Palais des Thés differentiated themselves from other brands by selling tea in loose instead of cheap tea bags, which dominated the market back then at 80% [3].
With its first shop opening in Paris in 1989, the house impresses with its French touch and attention given to details. As a matter of fact, they receive thousands of samples every year to be tested in order to select the best and freshest crus, those that will stand out by their aromatic wealth and their perfect harmony.
For this purpose, the house counts in its ranks a team of professional tea sommeliers who are true experts of tea tasting but whose role is also to transmit their know-how and passion to the customers [4]. It came as an evidence to the founder and Mathias Minet to open a school of tea (“École du thé”). Anyone, from beginner to connoisseur, can follow courses on the initiation to the art of tea and on its tasting [5]. I do not know about you, but I have always been curious to attend a traditional tea ceremony…
Online presence : from 1999 to Covid
In 1999, the house started proposing online orderings in order to open up to international clientele. Such an early entry [1] allowed them to anticipate the needs of its customer base and more importantly, of potential new ones. In this way, the deployment of new stores could follow its natural course without feeling pressured of missing out opportunities where they were not physically present.
Online orderings proved out to be the most necessary when there was no longer any access to physical stores during lockdown. The number of online orders went from 1500 to 2000 per day during lockdown compared to only 500 usually [6]. The uprise was so sudden and important that they had to install a ceiling of 1500 orders per day to keep up, since some of the workers were sick.
Palais des Thés was actually reelected this year as the best website of e-commerce online, by Capital.
Palais des Thés in Three numbers [7]
- 298 employees
- 20 500 000 euros sales revenues in 2017
- 66 shops in France and 17 abroad (Belgium, Luxembourg, Russia, Norway, Israel...)
Daphnée KORKMAZ
[1] Ducret, L. (2018, 12 juin). François-Xavier Delmas : Pour l’amour du thé. GPO Mag. https://www.gpomag.fr/web/interviews/francois-xavier-delmas-palais-des-thes
[6] Lavabre, S. (2020, 30 septembre). Palais des Thés se digitalise en douceur. LSA Conso. https://www.lsa-conso.fr/palais-des-thes-se-digitalise-en-douceur,359623
[7] Le Palais des Thes - Fiche d’entreprise. (s. d.). BMF Verif. https://www.verif.com/bilans-gratuits/LE-PALAIS-DES-THES-339752636/
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