 | |
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Tea |
| Founded | 1969 |
| Headquarters | Boulder, Colorado |
| Products | Herbal tea |
| Parent | Hain Celestial Group |
| Website | celestialseasonings |
| Footnotes /references [1] | |
Celestial Seasonings is an American tea company based in Boulder, Colorado, United States. The company specializes in herbal teas but also sells green, white, black, and chai teas. Founded in 1969, it is a subsidiary of Hain Celestial Group.
Celestial Seasonings has origins dating back to 1969 when co-founders Mo Siegel and Wyck Hay gathered wild herbs in the area of the Rocky Mountains and used them to make herbal teas. The tea was then packaged and sold to local health food stores with the help of wives and friends. [2] The first tea blend was called Mo's 36 which Siegel, his wife, and friends sold out of the back of a car while traveling across the United States. [3]
Additional blends were created and the company Celestial was officially formed in 1972, becoming the first American tea company to offer herbal tea blends. Celestial Seasonings also created and sponsored the Red Zinger Bicycle Classic race in Colorado during the 1970s. [4] In 1972, it introduced Sleepytime, its bestselling tea. [5]
Celestial Seasonings went public in 1983, but withdrew its public offering after a product recall. The following year it was purchased by Kraft Foods. [3] By 1983, it had sales of $27 million in its first year and was responsible for 40 percent of the herbal tea business. [3] Siegel retired in 1986, and the next year, Kraft announced they would sell Celestial Seasonings to Lipton. [6] Bigelow successfully sued to stop the sale based on antitrust laws. Kraft then sold Celestial to Vestar Capital Partners in 1988. [7]
In 1990, Celestial Seasonings moved into new headquarters in a custom-designed facility in North Boulder. Siegel returned in 1991 to serve as its chairman and CEO. [8] The company introduced a green tea line in 1995, the first to be sold in mainstream stores in the United States. [5]
Celestial Seasonings merged with natural food company the Hain Food Group in 2000 to form the Hain Celestial Group. The same year it introduced a chai tea line. [5] Siegel retired for the second time in 2002. [9] The following year it released cool brew iced tea and rooibos tea lines. [5]
Hain Celestial Group was one of 25 companies named in a 2013 class action lawsuit overall allegations of mislabeling its products (which included Celestial Seasonings) under California law. [10] The company reached a settlement in 2015, paying $7.5 million in compensation with an additional $2.4 million worth of coupons to consumers. [11]
By 2019, Celestial had over 100 varieties of teas and accounted for 5 percent of Hain Celestial Group's net sales. [5]
Celestial Seasonings manufactures and sells herbal and other varieties of tea. [5] The company's teas are branded using animals, including an anthropomorphic bear for the Sleepytime range. [12]
Herbal teas, also known as herbal infusions and less commonly called tisanes, are beverages made from the infusion or decoction of herbs, spices, or other plant material in hot water; they do not usually contain any true tea. Often herb tea, or the plain term tea, is used as a reference to all sorts of herbal teas. Many herbs used in teas/tisanes are also used in herbal medicine. Some herbal blends contain true tea.
Ranch dressing is a savory, creamy American salad dressing usually made from buttermilk, salt, garlic, onion, mustard, herbs, and spices mixed into a sauce based on mayonnaise or another oil emulsion. Sour cream and yogurt are sometimes used in addition to, or as a substitute for, buttermilk and mayonnaise.
The Coors International Bicycle Classic (1980–1988) was a stage race sponsored by the Coors Brewing Company. Coors was the race's second sponsor; the first, Celestial Seasonings, named the race after its premium tea Red Zinger, which began in 1975. Over the years, the event became America's national tour, listed as the fourth largest race in the world after the Tour de France, Giro d'Italia, and Vuelta a España. The race grew from 3 days of racing in its first years as the Red Zinger Bicycle Classic to 2 weeks in the later Coors Classic years. Race stages were held in Colorado in the early years, expanding first from Boulder and Denver back to the Keystone ski resort, later adding Estes Park, Vail, Aspen, and Grand Junction, before further expansion that included Wyoming, Nevada, California, and Hawaii. All but the last year the race concluded with a short circuit in North Boulder Park. On August 4, 2010, Colorado governor Bill Ritter and cycling legend Lance Armstrong announced that they would revive stage racing in Colorado with the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. It was a seven-day race held in August 2011.
Del Monte Foods Inc. is an American food production and distribution company headquartered in Walnut Creek, California. Del Monte Foods is one of the country's largest producers, distributors and marketer of branded processed food for the U.S. retail market, generating approximately $1.73 billion of annual sales. Its portfolio of brands includes Del Monte, S&W, Contadina, College Inn, Kitchen Basics, Joyba, and Take Root. Greg Longstreet is the current Chief Executive Officer of the Del Monte Foods. Several Del Monte products hold the number one or two market share position. The company also produces, distributes and markets private-label food.
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Kraft Foods Inc. was a multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It marketed many brands in more than 170 countries. Twelve of its brands annually earned more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oreo, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, and Tang. Forty of its brands were at least a century old.
The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. is an international food and personal-care company based in the United States. Its products include natural foods and organic personal-care items. Founded in 1993 as Hain Food Group, it changed its name to Hain Celestial Group after merging with Celestial Seasonings in 2000. It is publicly traded on the NASDAQ with brands that include Ella's Kitchen, Frank Cooper's, and Linda McCartney Foods.
The Red Zinger Bicycle Classic (1975–1979) was a road bicycle racing stage race.
Lipton is a British-American brand of tea, soup, and dipping sauce, owned by Lipton Teas and Infusions. Lipton was also the name of a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, owned by Allied Suppliers, which was sold to Argyll Foods in 1982, after which the brand was used only for tea, soup, and dipping sauce. The company, which is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who started the business it in 1890, was owned by Unilever for many decades until its sale to CVC Capital Partners in 2022. Lipton’s ready to drink beverages are sold by "Pepsi Lipton International", a company jointly owned by Unilever and PepsiCo.
Mrs. Dash is an American brand of salt-free seasoning that was introduced in 1983 and was marketed by B&G Foods. The best known varieties of Mrs. Dash are granulated mixtures of dried herbs and spices which are sold in small plastic shaker bottles holding 2.5 oz of product, 1.25 oz packets, for seasoning a 'family-size' meal, and .02 oz single-serving packets for consumers and institutional use, e.g. for patients on sodium-restricted diets.
Teavana Corporation is an American tea company, which previously had locations throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East. Starbucks acquired Teavana in 2012, and in 2017, Starbucks announced it would close all Teavana locations by 2018. As of 2022, a very limited variety of Teavana products continue to be sold at Starbucks.
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Ella's Kitchen is a company that makes organic baby and toddler food, sold in through retail and e-commerce internationally. Founded in 2006, the company was purchased by Hain Celestial Group in 2013.
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The Kraft Heinz Company (KHC), commonly known as Kraft Heinz, is an American multinational food company formed by the merger of Kraft Foods and H.J. Heinz Company co-headquartered in Chicago and Pittsburgh. Kraft Heinz is the third-largest food and beverage company in North America and the fifth-largest in the world with over $26.0 billion in annual sales as of 2021.
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