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ALUMNI NEWS
Nadeem Lalani (2007, PPE) on his tea-trading business
You can have a positive impact.
In 2010, I left Catz to join my two brothers
in setting up our own tea trading house,
Lalani & Company to source, select and curate
boutique teas produced by family run tea
gardens across the world, with a sustainable
and ethical focus.
We believed that business can, and should,
have a positive impact on society and the
environment, sewn right into the fabric of it.
What could be better than doing something
you love and growing a business, knowing
that with every effort you put towards it, you
are indirectly helping improve either the social
or natural environment around you? In the
end everyone wins.
The starting point was tea, of which we drink
165m cups a day in the UK, with little idea
of just how elegant a drink it can be. So we
set out to change this. We love that we have
been able to work with, and support, artisan
producers and experience how the flavours
of exquisite leaf tea are an expression of
nature’s seasons, biodiversity, climate and
terroir.
The journey so far has allowed us to work
with some great people - from forward
looking chefs to hoteliers, the press, the SRA
and Slow Food. One key step we took was
to create seasonal tea libraries for people
to experience the character of teas selected
seasonally with full provenance. We called the
approach ‘curating tea from Garden to Glass’.
I was lucky when I left Catz. I had two
brothers who had just begun the groundwork
of what was to become Lalani & Co. Having
business partners like this has been an
immense support. There’s still a lot left to
learn (Catz was only the beginning of a
lifelong process!) and if you start your own
business be warned - whatever your greatest
weakness is, you will soon find out!
This is a good lesson though; if you
feel you want to try your own thing, be
entrepreneurial or work with entrepreneurs,
you don’t always need all the skills yourself.
Teaming up with people you trust, who can
pick up where your skill set ends can have a
real impact. Look around you - these people
are with you every day in Oxford.
These two years have also opened my eyes
to how intricately tied we are to the world
we live in. The more we see of agriculture,
industry and food right from the tea garden
to the very top Michelin starred kitchens,
the more we see the immediate need and
opportunity to increase our sustainability
and be positive citizens in today’s world. It’s
exciting to see how many fun, talented and
wonderful people are out there who want to
do something about it and have fun while
doing so.
I’d encourage you to get stuck in, whatever
you are doing, whether starting your own
business or going into employment. We’d love
to help if you’re thinking about a startup or
want advice on how you could start looking
for an interesting and fulfilling career. There
are plenty of options out there. Drop me an
email on NL@lalaniandco.com.
If you want to experience tea culture at its
best, our collection of single estate teas
launches in February. Visit lalaniandco.com,
follow us on Twitter (@lalaniandco) to find
out the latest news. n
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