The Busy Botanist
Busy Bees at The Busy Botanist
The Busy Botanist has been growing and evolving rapidly! This is what we love to watch within our customers and we are very excited for their future developments.
Based in Killorglin, this herbal tea company was founded by best friends, Jo Arbon and Clair Kelly, as they wanted to target problem areas for themselves and consumers. These healthy, homemade teas have ditched caffeine and included all things herby within 14 different types. They recently bagged a place on the Grow with Aldi programme, were shortlisted in this year’s Irish Quality Food Awards and their stockist list is constantly increasing.
We caught up with Jo and Clair about their growth, favourite teas and new packaging!
Jo & Clair
We are noticing your stockist list growing more and more, how does this feel seeing your business flourish?
F**ng brilliant ??? A lot of our new stockists are actually as a result of our online or marketplace customers going in to their local stores and asking them to stock us, which is a great way to grow. It gives the stockist confidence that the products will sell. It also gives us the confidence that we are obviously doing something right. We have a few irons in fires with some very big clients, but can’t really divulge more on that just yet… watch this space… here and UK, and further afield!
What has been the most rewarding development within the company so far?
Paying ourselves finally!! To be honest, although it’s great to be going from strength to strength, its actually getting the most incredible feedback from our customers on just how much the teas are helping with various ailments and issues. Only last week we had a lady who suffers from chronic IBS telling us that nothing else had helped but our Tum Ease tea; and then another lady who contacted us to let us know that our Headaches blend had actually helped her kick her Solpadine addiction, something she felt she would never have had the confidence to do without our tea.
Tell us a little bit about the miniatures – are you pleased with the packaging?
We are over the moon with our miniatures, we think they are just the cutest thing ever. So much better than a single sachet in terms of both presentation and environmental impact. All the packaging in our miniatures is now fully compostable. They are a great option for people who want to just try a blend, or can be really useful to have to hand as part of a selection at home, as every day you can feel like you need a different blend. We have recently started supply the Food Service industry and they are proving most popular at the till in staff restaurants around the country.
Miniature The Busy Botanist
What are your favourite teas from the range?
Depends on the day that’s in it! We both run on Stressed Out, but Clair loves the Tum Ease and Sweet Dreams (she’s a restless leg sufferer) whereas Jo has a penchant for Sneezy Wheezy. Other favourites include Women Problems (Clair’s kids are still talking to her, and Jo’s husband is still breathing… so we can vouch for that one!); Oo My Aching Bones, and Headaches (…on a Sunday!)
A Tea For Every Occasion
What’s your experience been like with Priory Press Packaging?
Bloody awful ???? … always pestering us for autographs and freebies… Only joking! They’ve been a great bunch to work with; and have been so patient with us. We literally started out not having a clue what we needed to do or how. They hand held us through the entire process. Then worked with us to do everything possible to meet tight deadlines and weird delivery requirements. The products have also come out looking exactly as we wanted. We are excited to carry on working with them in the future as we have a whole raft of new products in the pipeline!
