Celestial Seasonings

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Celestial Seasonings

Type of Company	Public (NYSE: HAIN)
Founded	1970
Headquarters	Boulder, Colorado
Key people	Steven List, President
Industry	Herbal Tea
Products	Tea
Employees	270 (as of 1997)
Website	www.celestialseasonings.com

Celestial Seasonings is a tea company based in Boulder, Colorado, United States that specialises in herbal tea but also sells green and black tea (as well as white and oolong blends). They are the largest manufacturer and marketer of specialty hot teas in the United States. ^{[citation needed]} All of their teas are certified kosher and all-natural, and many are certified organic as well. The Boulder factory conducts free guided tours daily.

1 History
2 Products
3 External links

[edit] History

Celestial Seasonings founders Mo Siegel, John Hay and others started gathering herbs and flowers in the mountains around Boulder and selling them to local health-food stores in 1969.

In the 1970s the company grew rapidly, creating popular herbal tea blends (such as Sleepytime and Red Zinger) and moving to larger headquarters twice; they were selling internationally by 1977. Celestial Seasonings created and sponsored the Red Zinger Classic bicycle race in Colorado during the 1970s.

Celestial Seasonings was purchased by Kraft Foods in 1984 which expanded the marketing of the brand both nationally and internationally. Mo Siegel retired in 1986, and the next year, Kraft announced they would sell Celestial Seasonings to Lipton. The sale was successfully challenged by Bigelow under anti-trust laws, and local management purchased the company back from Kraft in 1988.

In 1990 Celestial Seasonings moved into new headquarters in a custom-designed facility in North Boulder. Mo Siegel returned in 1991 to serve as CEO. The company continued to grow and introduce new products through the 1990s.

Celestial Seasonings merged with natural food company The Hain Food Group in 2000 to become The Hain Celestial Group, Inc NASDAQ: HAIN. Mo Siegel retired for the second time in 2002.

[edit] Products

Celestial Seasonings is known to have more flavors of tea than most other tea companies, with many flavors being launched nearly every month. Some flavors do not sell well or some are found unsuitable. Many flavors are discontinued at some point and are replaced with a tea marketed for a higher success. For example, Melatonin PM was replaced with the incredibly popular Sleepytime which is one of their highest selling teas. ^{[citation needed]} Every box of tea has high quality art work on them--each intended to represent the feeling the tea produces to the consumer.