Dragon’s Den contestant Noveltea appoints liquidators
The business was established in 2016 by entrepreneurs Lukas Passia and Vincent Efferoth and later secured funding through Dragon’s Den in Germany with investor Dagmar Woehrl.
Founders Luke Passia and Vincent Efferoth appeared on the BBC TV series Dragon’s Den in 2018 hoping to secure investment. But the pair rejected offers form three of the Dragons – including a £800,000 investment for 39% of the business.
Liquidators
Allan Kelly and Steven Ross of specialist business advisory firm FRP were appointed as joint liquidators of Tea Venture Limited, which is behind the alcoholic tea brand Noveltea, on 11 October 2022
Noveltea was promoted as the world’s first premixed and ready to drink alcoholic tea and was created through a cold brewing process and sourced teas from around the world.
However, over the past year the business has struggled to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic and inflationary environment. Noveltea’s revenues were significantly impacted by changes in consumer spending and one of the business’ largest customers in Europe had filed for insolvency earlier over the summer. Rising input prices had also put pressure on profitability and its ability to operate as a going concern.
Ceased trading
As a result of these challenging trading conditions the directors of the business ceased trading and made all staff redundant. However despite an accelerated sale process there were no viable offers for the business and the Directors therefore filed for a creditors voluntary liquidation.
Allan Kelly, Partner at FRP and Joint Liquidator of Tea Venture Limited, said: “The Noveltea brand brought an innovative concept to the drinks market. But, the business was still in the early stages of its growth and was unable to withstand the immense pressure of rising input prices or reach the revenue growth it needed. We are now marketing the assets for sale, including the business’ intellectual property and brand.”
In December 2020, Noveltea created 20 new jobs after receiving an investment of £1.4M from the North East Venture Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund, Mercia, the Government’s Future Fund and crowdfunding site CrowdCube managed the investment.
