You’ve probably never heard of QTrade International Corp., but if you’ve ever strolled down the tea aisle at Whole Foods Market, you’ve probably seen the company’s products.
And you might see more. The company, a major importer and processor of specialty teas and herbs, is expanding and this month finished moving into a new manufacturing center and headquarters in Cerritos.
The 64,000-square-foot building, at 16205 Distribution Way, was purchased last year and nearly doubles the company’s footprint compared with its previously facility of 34,000 square feet in Santa Fe Springs.
“It gives us additional capability, especially in our manufacturing,” said QTrade President Manjiv Jayakumar. “We went from 2,000 square feet of blending area to about 12,000 square feet.”
QTrade imports teas and herbs, mostly through the local ports, then processes, blends and packages teas for private-label customers. Jayakumar said he could not disclose the names of any customers, but they are brands “you’d typically find in a Whole Foods environment.”
The company imports about 800 different ingredients, most of them organic and fair-trade certified, and has roughly 2,000 different product blends. Its products are available in all 50 states; the company also serves customers in Canada and the Middle East.
QTrade has grown significantly since Jayakumar’s father, Chief Executive Manik, founded the company in his garage in 1994 after emigrating from Sri Lanka. It was a one-man operation until 2005, when it moved to a small warehouse in Santa Fe Springs; QTrade now employs about 50 workers.
Manjiv Jayakumar said QTrade doesn’t need all of its 64,000 square feet today and called the $4.3 million purchase a gamble, but he expects the company to grow into its new space as the specialty tea market grows.
“It’s a bet on the future of the industry,” he said. “We felt we wanted to build ahead of what the current state of the business was. In the short term, we certainly face lots of cash-flow pressures, but we’re confident our tea is here to stay.”
Filling Station
How do you drum up business in odd-looking collapsible water bottles? Give customers a way to fill them up – and get colleges and national parks to do the advertising for you.
That’s the premise behind Westlake Village company Vapur Inc.’s partnership with Elkay Manufacturing Co., the Oak Brook, Ill., maker of sinks and drinking fountains.
Elkay developed a Vapur-branded line of drinking fountains that include spigots for filling up water bottles. Vapur, which makes what it calls collapsible “un-bottles,” is marketing the fountains to colleges and national parks and offering a 30 percent discount. Indoor models retail at about $1,000 and outdoor models go for around $3,000. The fountains feature the Vapur name and logo.
Though the fountains can be used to fill any type of water bottle, Vapur believes it will benefit from what amounts to a permanent advertisement stamped on each fountain.
“It’s good for us because there’s a small billboard that has the Vapur name,” said Ashley Doran, the company’s national sales director. “That will last for years and years to come.”
Colleges and parks that purchase the fountains also get a 5 percent discount on the cost of Vapur bottles for sale in gift shops and bookstores. Bottles retail for between $10 and $14.
Sequoia and Glacier national parks have purchased about five fountains each, and UC Riverside has purchased eight.
Oil and Water
Just three months ago, algae technology company OriginOil Inc. announced that the same process it developed to remove water from algae could also remove oil and gas from the water used in “fracking” – the controversial mining process that has led to North America’s recent oil and gas boom.
Now, the company, based in West Adams, is starting a business unit dedicated to pushing the company’s technology into the oil and gas industry. OriginOil last week announced that it hired R. Gerald Bailey, a former Exxon Mobil Corp. executive, as an adviser to the new division.
Chief Executive Riggs Eckelberry said this is just the first of what could be several business units aimed at using OriginOil’s technology in other industries.
“We’ve got people looking at applications rather than pure technology,” he said. “We want to put this technology into different channels.”
Shares of OriginOil stock, traded on the OTC Bulletin Board, were up 24 percent to $1.25 after the July 19 announcement.
Staff reporter James Rufus Koren can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225.
