The Argentine company was born more than 10 years ago in San Luis and specializes in teas, yerba mate, preserves, jams and herbal mixtures.
Los Caminos del Té is an SME that has its base of operations in the province of San Luis and that with the help of the entrepreneur Paula Rufino and her husband, Esteban Cirino, she managed to reach all the provinces of Argentina with her products, but that is not all because now is about to disembark in Miami while exploring the possibility of expanding to Chile and Uruguay among other destinations.
The truth is that today it is pure success and has expansion plans behind it.a story of resilience and perseverance and this is how Paula Rufina, owner of Caminos del Té explains it: “A little more than 10 years ago, together with my husband and my children, we made the decision to leave our life in Buenos Aires behind to move to San Luis. We weren’t very clear about what we were going to work on, but we wanted a better lifestylemore in contact with nature. At first we collaborated with a family tourism business while we were looking for work, something that was not easy either because the job market is much more limited in the interior.
In the meantime We faced many undertakings with greater and lesser luck until we began to make jams and preserves as a hobby and gave them to our friends. One day we realized that this could be our venture and we got to work. In a short time we were already with our brand in the main regional product stores in the province. Then I specialized in the world of tea and herbs and created our first line of tea “blends” with 13 flavors inspired by nature. We grew bigger and bigger until we set up our own tea house. At the end of 2019 we made the decision to sell everything and start traveling through Latin America, but the start of the pandemic in 2020 cut our plans short.”.
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From that moment on, this entrepreneurial couple found that they no longer had a specific source of income and that their travel plans had been, at least, postponed for a long time. That’s why They began to devise a strategy to return to the market and sought as allies entrepreneurs who wanted to get into a business that at that time was booming.since people in their homes required healthy products that help reduce the stress generated by the pandemic and there Los Caminos del Té found a market niche.
“We began to contact entrepreneurs to resell our products, mainly tea, varieties of sweets and preserves, and we found very good acceptance. Social networks were key because we managed to reach many people who wanted to start a business and whom we also accompanied with training and talks. It was a very nice job because in this way our products managed to reach all the provinces of Argentina. hToday we have a constant relationship with around 700 entrepreneurs and, on the other hand, we supply wholesale to gastronomic establishments or regional products,” explains Rufino..
To return to the initial path, the creators of Los Caminos del Té They opened another tea house that was also very well received, especially during the time of tourism in the province of San Luis, and while direct sales to entrepreneurs grew, they had to move to a larger factory to continue developing their increasingly extensive business. product range. “The pandemic seemed like the end point for our plans to tour Latin America with the aim of developing more varieties of tea, but it ended up being the boost we needed to give more strength to our business. Today we have many expansion plans, At the end of the year we will present a plan to offer franchisesboth from tea houses and stores selling our products and another from “take away” to buy prepared products and tea. Very recently we achieved our first export to Hong Kong and in the next few days we are going to disembark in the United States, more specifically in Miami, with our Amate brand yerba and our herbal mixtures.. There is a very interesting business there and that is why we are betting on our online store and distributors.”
Regarding the company’s projections in the medium term, Paula advances: “Continue to grow in business volume, add entrepreneurs, products and of course tolreach more markets abroad. Chile and Uruguay are two destinations that we are developing to arrive very soon. The truth is that we started with a very small investment and today we have an SME with great projection and of course The plan to travel is always present, but now we are going to do it as representatives of our company”.
Source: Ambito
