From the perspective of the owner

The origins of Oxalis

When I accepted an invitation from the Teekanne company in summer 1992 to visit tea plantations in Sri Lanka, I could not have foreseen that it would substantially affect my future. At that time, I was one of the owners of a business that imported this brand name into the former Czechoslovakia. So enchanted was I by the seemingly boundless tea gardens that I returned home literally a changed man. As it happened, the partners of the company were rather differently envisaging how the company should continue. While the others were set on further exploring the typical wholesale foodstuffs’ sector and exploiting more gaps in the relatively empty domestic market, I was irreversibly resolved to solely devoting myself to tea.

The first tea shop in Zlín and hard times

One year later, on 29th July 1993, I registered OXALIS as a company in the business register, and earnestly threw myself into independent enterprise. 

From the resources that I had earned in my prior business activity, I first opened a tea house on the street of Sadová in the centre of Zlín. It was a very bold and ambitious project, comprising a spacious shop with loose tea on one floor and a tea room on the other. However, my fervour to work with loose tea and share this with people was beset with hurdles. Only a few individuals knew what loose tea was and were willing to buy and drink it. What was later to become tea culture was merely at its start. The more praise the project received, the less well it did financially.

Two years on, in 1995, I was sorely doubting whether Czechs would ever discover loose tea and purchase it like I had seen in Austria and Germany. As the months passed, I became ever more convinced that my efforts were proving fruitless, and any economic prosperity of the company was far off. The original capital was drying up, the Sadová tea house was still losing money, and I started thinking about getting a job as an employee and ceasing the company’s activities.

Gaining a foothold in shopping centres

The breakthrough came, as often in life, via an unexpected occurrence that got the ball rolling. At the end of 1995, a new shopping centre was opened in Prague - Vinohrady Pavilion. It dawned on me that people might just, whilst doing their general shopping, get the impulse to purchase loose tea. I made enquiries about renting an area close to the supermarket, as people might well gather there in large numbers. The shop was fitted out with glass jars, so people could lift the lids and smell the fragrance of the teas, whilst the transparent glass would let them visually assess their quality. At last! Some degree of success was mine.

A true turning point came in 1997. While the Vinohrady centre was relatively small, the one called Černý most was designed to become a large-scale shopping centre with a hypermarket. Here too it was possible to find a space for rent. The residents of Prague took a liking to this shopping centre, and for the first time crowds of people ended up passing by the store. This had the effect of putting the company on the right course.

Early days of retail trade

One unexpected consequence was that some people appeared interested in replicating the sale of loose tea from glass jars in their own shops – not just in Prague. The seed for conducting wholesale business was sown, and it was clearer as to which path to take for the future. As long ago as 1998 I was playing with the idea of franchising, but the concept then was rather general and vague. It became reality later, although it is only recently that a carefully formulated franchise system has been instigated. At that time, encouraged by this modicum of success, I opened three of my own retail outlets at once - the kernel of a proper retail network had taken form.

In further developments, a rented warehouse in Prague-Běchovice considerably affected the wholesale activities of the company. In the end, although it was set up only few years after the company had been established, it was closed in 2007, when it later proved possible to distribute nationally without any problems from the company’s headquarters in Slušovice.

Creating original blends

At the end of the 1990s, I began to add tea accessories to the assortment and, in 1999, coffee beans were introduced. A revolutionary step, and one vital for development of the business, was that we ushered in the process of blending and flavouring teas at this timeframe. Our very own recipes were being prepared, which added further value to the company, also creating opportunities for export activities. Our blends were unique and copying them was rather complicated, hence OXALIS began to take on its specific shape.

Dark point in history

The magic year of 2000 was drawing nigh, and it seemed that the company was ploughing the right furrow for the future. Nevertheless, one should always expect the unexpected, and it happened that a key employee left the firm and appropriated the company’s know-how, handing it over to a distributor in Slovakia. The aim was to deeply wound OXALIS, a common enough tale in the post-communist Czech Republic. A three-year period of mutual combat commenced, which did not have anything to do with healthy competition. It was not that we had just lost distribution in a neighbouring country, but we had also inadvertently aided a rival who was willing to go the distance and then some. Nevertheless, in 2003, the Slovakian company went bust, exhausted through its endeavours to win at any cost. The firm’s capital resources could not withstand such an onslaught. 

In the end, OXALIS emerged as stronger from this trying period. We comprehensively acquired the technology to process tea, and extended the retail network, gaining a number of new wholesale customers and laying the foundations for export.

Moving to Oxalis's own premises

At that time, the company moved to its fourth rented site in Zlín, and the facilities again proved insufficient. Therefore, the decision was made to establish the company’s very own place with the longer, ideally permanent, perspective of settling the matter. Coincidentally, the chance cropped up to buy a property in Slušovice of 2,300 m2, which was purchased in 2002. A few years later, a new floor was annexed to the HQ, so usable area was extended by one-third. In fact, further extension is to follow in the next three years. One cannot hinder progress… …

Since moving to the new Slušovice premises, the progress of the company has settled down to a quieter pace. Every year has seen better results than the previous one, even during national crises.

The Oxalis design collection

In 2005, OXALIS started cooperating with the design department of Tomáš Baťa University, in Zlín. The students prepared coloured designs as part of their course work, which were later put on tea and coffee accessories, these being produced for the company in Asia. Since then, such collaborative efforts in design have been extended to artists throughout the Czech Republic. Consequently, a collection of products bearing the OXALIS design is the result, lending a genuine sense of uniqueness to the product range.

New packaging line and addition of a coffee roaster

As regards internal changes, the year of 2009 saw the purchase of a fully automated packaging line, whilst 2010 witnessed the introduction of a machine for blending and flavouring tea. The following year was marked by the purchase of a top-of-the-range Merlin coffee roaster by the Californian company Loring Smart, superseded this year by a Kestrel high capacity roaster. Additionally, after streamlining the complete tea manufacturing process, the same procedure was applied to coffee.

Concept for franchising

At the beginning of 2011, OXALIS became a member of the Czech Franchise Association. This ushered in significant modifications to the firm’s franchise concept - a detailed franchising manual was made available, and the requirements for providing a franchise licence were heightened. In other words, OXALIS’ approach to franchising had taken a more professional turn.

Currently, the number of OXALIS retail outlets is settled at the total of 26. Furthermore, OXALIS has furthered its export network to encompass a ten-fold increase in the number of countries included. Other advances comprise the quantity of wholesale partners reaching approximately 1000 and the product range coming to more than 1500 items, whilst the company’s turnover in its twentieth year is predicted as close to 200 million CZK.

The future of OXALIS shall be built upon these healthy foundations, and the company’s intention is to attain a high profile position as a central European business in the tea and coffee sector.