Ito En

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Ito en (伊藤園) (TYO: 2593 ) is a Japanese beverage company. Its products include unsweetened bottled green tea, and are also distributed in the United States, where it has a store in New York and New Jersey.

[edit] Company information

Ito En is a major force in the Japanese beverage industry. According to the most recent annual report (2005), the company had ¥263,765 million in sales for that year, and per their website has over ¥12.5 billion in paid in capital (over USD 107 million). The main focus seems to be increasing sales domestically and shareholders' profit, and there has also been an attempt to sell high-end lines of pre-brewed iced tea overseas as well as loose leaf tea. The company sells both pre-brewed bottled tea and loose leaf tea. As with any business entity that relies on agriculture, revenue is affected by crop conditions as well as traditional consumer focused concerns.

[edit] Within the United States

Within the US the company currently has six lines of products. The pre-brewed teas all contain added vitamin C.

Tea's Tea, an unsweetended-only variety that focuses on traditional Japanese tea flavors, such as Jasmine and Genmai
Sencha Shot, an unsweetened-only variety that focuses on a concentration of green-tea antioxidants
Ito En, sweetened fruit flavored tea
Oi Ocha, marketed as their "original green tea."
Café Sepia, a line of bottled coffee that contains sugar and milk
The Ito En line of loose leaf tea, to which they claim to have over 100 varieties.

In addition to these lines, which are mostly sold in specialty stores in the US as well as their retail website, the company also maintains a tea store and two restaurants in New York City.