After a successful two-year run in Philadelphia, World Tea East will move south to continue to fulfill its mission of providing a regionally-focused east coast event through a co-location with the new Atlanta Foodservice Expo to be held October 20-22, 2013 at the Georgia World Congress Center.
The Atlanta Foodservice Expo is being launched by Clarion Events to fulfill the unmet demand for the thousands of restaurants and foodservice establishments in region. World Tea East will have a significant footprint on the show floor and be a “show within a show” at AFSE. World Tea East organizers met with their key exhibitors and sponsors of the event who unanimously agreed that it was a great opportunity. The event will maintain its own website, marketing, and registration and will host its well-recognized educational program.
“World Tea East and Atlanta Foodservice Expo are a perfect combination,” says George Jage, founder and director of World Tea Media, which also organizes World Tea Expo, Healthy Beverage Expo and the North American Tea Championship. “Co-locating our regional tea event with Atlanta Foodservice Expo presents significant benefits to attendees and exhibitors of both shows. There’s a lot of synergy between the two industries. In addition, Atlanta is one of the most ideal locations in the country to hold World Tea East, with all of the restaurants, foodservice establishments and hotels in the area. Aligning these two events is perfect in terms of timing, location and target market. Through this new relationship, we look forward to elevating the tea programs of many more foodservice establishments.” Jage also noted that many of the core tea businesses are ultimately tea-centric foodservice establishments. They are expected to benefit greatly from the added value of the foodservice exhibitors.
“Philadelphia was a great location for the event as we were able to attract buyers predominantly from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The city truly had a lot to offer as a premier destination with much better accessibility and affordability than other northeast corridor locations. But our long term objective is to draw new people, such as restaurants, gift stores, etc. in who typically wouldn’t travel cross country for a tea event, and we see a greater opportunity to attract new buyers into the premium tea market by moving the event every few years,” said Jage. “When World Tea Expo rotated to Atlanta in 2007, it was the second highest attended event in its 10 year run. While East is by design a smaller event, we expect big things in Atlanta again.”
David Audrain, president and CEO of Clarion North America, says, “We realize tea is an important part of foodservice, and consumers are increasingly looking to enjoy better teas. The foodservice industry wants to learn about high quality tea and, at the same time, understand how to profit from tea. Thus, co-locating Atlanta Foodservice Expo with World Tea East is an opportunity for two complementary industries to meet and strengthen their businesses. Indeed, World Tea East’s exhibit floor, lectures, tastings and workshops can assist foodservice professionals in making key business decisions with tea, like creating a premium tea drink program. Likewise, Atlanta Foodservice Expo and its educational sessions can help tea professionals and tea retailers with foodservice knowledge, products, supplies and technologies.”
According to the National Restaurant Association, there are more than 90,000 foodservice establishments in Georgia and the surrounding states, producing more than $80 billion in sales and 2.2 million jobs, with more than 35,000 of those establishments within just 200 miles of Atlanta.
For more information, visit www.WorldTeaEast.com and www.AtlantaFoodserviceExpo.com.