JULY 2019 FORBES INDONESIA | 39“Our purpose
is to take
our local
pride into the
international
market.”its name suggests—of Indonesian premium
tea to local people and the world.
Growing up in a family that ran a giant
tea business in Indonesia, consuming tea was
pretty much an inseparable part of Lily’s life.
Lily’s grandfather was the founder of Kepala
Djenggot (PT Gunung Subur Sejahtera) a tra-
ditional tea brand dating back to 1951. The
business was continued by her father until he
passed away in 2010, which was also a turning
point for Lily, who had been a dentist up until
then, to take over the almost seven-decades
old company as the CEO.
Her appreciation for Indonesia’s bound-
less culture and her attention to health and art
led to her taking a new step in spreading the
tea culture in the country. In
2015, Lily founded Savis Tea, a
premium tea brand under sepa-
rate management from Kepala
Djenggot. The brand is manu-
factured in Solo.
“Savis presents a combina-
tion of tradition, art, and inno-
vation, from the local tea cul-
ture and the art of blending and
mixing tea, to five-sense pleas-
ing packaging. Moreover, tea
is a healthy drink, so why not
start something premium about
it?” says Lily.
Savis does not manage its
own plantation. Instead, it pre-
fers to source ingredients locally
from the best plantations all
over Indonesia—leaves, flow-
ers and spices, some then mixed
with imported ingredients such
as chamomile and mint. Cur-
rently Savis has 38 variants,
ranging from classics like black
and oolong tea to the unique,
like its Bunaken Blue Tea –
which is mostly used for cock-
tail bases, the chocolate-flavored
tea Papua Choco Delight, and
Pomegranate White Tea.
The market characteristics
of traditional tea and premium
tea are a contrast: one for the
older generation, and millen-
nials and young adults opting
for the latter—both on the consumer and pro-
ducer sides. However, the values passed down
from Kepala Djenggot were a strong founda-
tion as Savis’ starting point.
“Although we were starting something
completely new, we were already experi-
enced in the tea industry and this distin-
guishes us from other players that have fol-
lowed in our footsteps in making premium
tea,” says Lily.
Establishing the market was the biggest
challenge for Savis, especially because of
the negative sentiment and distrust toward
Indonesian products. Lily recalls that when
people saw their products at exhibitions,
they were interested because of the attrac-
tive packaging, but lost interest quickly when
they learned they were Indonesian. But after
one exhibition and another, a supermarket
contacted Savis to retail the product, and
more people began coming after Savis began
working with hotels, restaurants, and cafés
in Jakarta and Bali. She believes that con-
sistency in maintaining quality is important
in order to continue building this trust, and
this will be proven by time. Therefore, she
also sets people who are aware and educated
about the comsumption of quality ingredients
in their lifestyle as her target market.
Lily explains that in the first two years it
was particularly difficult for Savis’ sales to
grow more than 10%, but last year its sales
increased by 200%. She adds that Savis has
become the best-selling premium tea brand
in the outlets where it retails: Kemchicks,
AlunAlun Indonesia, and AEON. She believes
this good start is a sign that what the compa-
ny is doing is on the right track. Lily stresses,
however, that although Savis has been able to
make a profit, the revenue is still below that
of traditional tea. Currently about 80% of Sa-
vis is sold on the local market, while the rest
is exported to Japan and several countries in
the Middle East, as well as in America, where
it has only recently begun to work with a dis-
tribution partner.
“For now, we still want to focus on Indo-
nesia and grab the large market here, but for
sure in the future we want to grow our pres-
ence overseas as well. After all, our purpose is
to take our local pride into the international
AHMAD ZAMRONI/HKV FOR FORBES INDONESIA market,” she says.