“Meeting the miserable conditions was life changing”

He is passionate about Asia and tea. Håkan Kjellström is CEO of the Swedish tea company, Tekompaniet and wants to make consumers aware of how sustainable tea can make a difference.

Håkan Kjellström started Tekompaniet in 1999. Already as a child, he was fascinated about Asia and as a young man he went exploring India and Nepal. With great interest of the country and culture, he traveled and lived like ordinary simple people, not like a tourist.

– It was life changing with all the miserable conditions and inside grew the idea of doing something meaningful, of helping and developing conditions for underprivileged people in countries with widespread poverty, says Håkan.

Back home in Sweden, he worked for a few years as a media salesman, but the idea of starting his own business took him back to visit Asian trade fairs. It was tea he wanted to import.

– Tea is a handmade craftmanship with a 5 000-year history. My knowledge of tea was zero, but the business idea was right. Tekompaniet began right from the start with organic and ethical premium teas. He began to travel around Sweden, where the tea selection was quite often of low quality. Seven out of ten companies he visited, became immediately customers.

Tekompaniet’s products are mainly organic and Fairtrade certified, but the aim is to always contribute more. Recently, we purchased 350 lightweight baskets for the teapluckers on the plantation in Blue Mountains, India.

– Sustainability is an important and central part of our business. From the beginning, most of our products are produced under ethical and environmentally friendly conditions. With our new premium tea, LIFE BY FOLLIS, we have challenged every part of the production. We provide traceability from plant to cup, with tea that is fresh, orthodox produced and made of high-quality raw materials,” explains Håkan Kjellström, CEO of Tekompaniet.

Better work tools

We have replaced the heavy and unwieldy baskets with lightweight baskets with a high collar to make it easier to throw the tea leaves over their shoulders,î says HÂkan. With every cup of Life by Follis tea you drink, you will make a real difference!

The traditional bamboo baskets weight 4000 g and the new light basket 400 g.

Tekompaniet exhibit in the Swedish Pavilion
“Sweden into Organic” in hall 6, stand 118.

CONTACT INFORMATION
Mr Håkan Kjellström
General Manager & CEO
+46 8 68 40 50 05
hakan@tekompaniet.se