This iced tea franchise offers a unique twist in the booming beverage wars

Take-Away with Sam Oches

Nation's Restaurant News

Business, Entrepreneurship

2.5 • 15 Ratings

🗓️ 20 June 2024

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Heath Nielsen, president of HTeaO, an iced tea franchise that is enjoying incredible growth in its home state of Texas and beyond. HTeaO showed up for the first time on this year’s Technomic Top 500, growing its unit count by 47% in 2023 to 103 locations and climbing to spot No. 442 on the Top 500. Heath joined the podcast to talk about how this upstart tea franchise first got his attention and why he thinks it has so much upside at a time when coffee seems to be king.

In this conversation, you’ll find out why:

Self-service could be a game-changer for the booming beverage category
Drive-thru-only is not the only growth opportunity for beverage
The PM side of the road is just as important as the AM side
Line extensions are a great way to support franchisees and enter retail space
Efficiency, innovation the name of the game in beverage — but cost considerations crucial

Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, welcome to Takeaway with Sam Ocas, a podcast from Nation's Restaurant News.
0:14.0	I am Sam Ocas, editor-in-chief here at NRN, and this is the show where I give you an all-access
0:19.3	pass to the restaurant industry's most
0:21.1	influential decision makers. This week, I'm talking with Heath Nielsen. He is the president of
0:26.8	HTO, an iced tea franchise that is enjoying incredible growth in its home state of Texas and
0:33.6	beyond. HTO got my attention when it showed up for the first time on this year's Technomic
0:38.8	Top 500, growing its unit count by 47% in 2023 to 103 locations, and climbing to spot
0:47.5	number 442 on the Top 500.
0:51.0	Heath is a veteran of the retail industry, but he came aboard as president of HTO about a year ago.
0:57.0	He joined the podcast to talk about how this upstart tea franchise got his attention in the first place and why he thinks it has so much upside at a time when it seems like coffee is king.
1:08.0	In this interview, you will learn more about why self-service could be a game-changer
1:12.4	for the booming beverage category, why the PM side of the road is just as important as the AM side,
1:19.4	and why line extensions are a great way to support franchisees but also get a foot in the door
1:24.1	in the retail space. By the way, if you want more from the Technomic
1:29.0	Top 500 report, we have got plenty that you can dig into over at nrn.com. Jumping now into my
1:36.1	interview with HTO's Heath Nielsen. Also, don't forget to stick around after the interview,
1:40.9	as I will share my five takeaways from this discussion, actionable insights
1:44.7	that you can take with you on the go.
1:48.3	All right, sitting down with Heath Nielsen of HTO.
1:52.8	Heath, thanks so much for taking some time today.
1:54.9	Appreciate it.
1:56.1	Yeah, so Heath, this brand is fairly new to me.
	...

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